


Personal Demon

by Lumissa



Category: Original Work
Genre: 80's Music, Cars, Gay Sex, M/M, Neighbors, Original Character(s), Rotten Food, Slash, Slowly developing relationship, Tricksters, You Have Been Warned, sly character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-24
Updated: 2016-11-04
Packaged: 2018-07-26 11:48:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 21,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7572970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lumissa/pseuds/Lumissa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Matt had his personal demon living in the next door. He wasn’t sure why Andrew Hunter was determined to make his life a living hell but he knew damned well he wasn’t some pushover. That jerk could taste his own rotten eggs. M/M, slash</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. As Rotten as the Eggs

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: Swearing. Matty swears a lot. Usually I don’t make my characters swear this much but Matt’s special case. And later on there’ll be some awkward sex cuz I can’t write good sex scenes. Oh and some other pretty rough “jokes” and “tricks” and so on will be presented. Oh and hints of some straight stuff. Scary, right? 
> 
> A/N: Evening, morning, whatever it is for you! So, one day I got this weird idea which I wanted to write no matter what. And I mean it when I said write, not plan. I only knew the basic plotline and what the characters do but that was it. In other words I have no idea how this is going to turn out to be. Wanna go to this adventure with me? Great! Just hang on then and see how my first original story written in English looks like.

I

”Well, since everything’s fine we can take our leaves.” A tall and broad police officer lifted his cap slightly with his thumb and index finger, looking between two adult men like it was some kind of joke. Matt gritted his teeth. This couldn’t happen.

“Like hell everything’s fine,” he said, eyes glued to the little shit that was ruining his life and sanity. Little by little. Unless that brat had already done it since it wasn’t like Matt to lose his temper. In front of the police, to the boot. “That… that _guy_ ,” he had better names to that _guy_ but decided it was taking it too far. In front of bigger uniform clad officers, at least. “He fucking dumbed his shit to _my_ backyard. His fucking _rotten food_ , for god’s sake. There’s no way it was an accident.” 

As the two officers turned to him with stern faces, the little shit locked eyes with Matt, grinning like some spawn of Devil. Maybe he was. Matt swore to god he could see flames of hell flashing in his evil looking red eyes. Even though they weren’t even close to red since they were blue but those flames, yep, those flames made them look red as fuck. Now if only the police would turn to that guy they’d see what a liar he was and that they’d fallen for his tricks too. Matt had once too – he was embarrassed about his naivety – but it was so clear now. His neighbour was no human. 

“ _Sir_ ,” the word was stressed with a meaningful tone. “We talked about this already. Mr Hunter here already apologized and explained how he’d mistaken the location of the compost and dumbed his bio waste accidentally to your yard.” Matt turned his head at least ten meters to his right where the compost was standing clearer than the day. There was no way anyone would miss that. “Mr Hunter moved back just recently so it’s understandable that mistakes happen. I hope there’s no problem.”

Yeah. No problem at all if you didn’t count the smelly pile of old food on his grass, shit eating grin of his neighbour’s son and his shitty mood of being scolded by the brainwashed police men. “Yes. Everything’s fine,” he said through his teeth. He could feel his wain pulsing. 

“Good that we agree.” The speaker, the only police of the two who’d opened his mouth during the whole scenario, turned to Andrew Hunter – whose grin turned into a sweet smile – and continued, “Mr Hunter, I hope you clean up the mess you made to Mr Mcfall’s yard. Well, good day then.” 

The brat had nodded but Matt knew better. He didn’t let his eyes stray from the asshole the whole time the police got back to their car and took off. Only when the car disappeared from the sight, did his annoying neighbour turn to him. They measured each other for a while, Matt challenging the younger man not to do as he was told to. If he didn’t clean up his property, he’d make him clean it. 

When neither of them made the first move, Matt got enough. “Well?” He raised his brow and nodded down to the pile which seemed to be the flies’ favourite spot. The sun was burning hot to the ground, making both the rotten smell and Matt’s sweating worse. His grey t-shirt glued to his back, making him feel weird combination of chills and hot waves in his body. 

“Calm down, Matty.” Andrew Hunter rose his hands up and for a while Matt let himself imagine how good it’d feel to throw that shit against that shitty face. He restrained his hands with a cigarette. 

“You better clean up or I’ll tell the police.” Like it was any good. He’d called the police only half an hour earlier, deciding enough was enough when he saw his neighbour’s son tilting the red bucket over the waist high fence that separated the two houses. The kid had been whistling. Whistling! It was no accident. So he’d called the cops and told them everything but then that Hunter kid had come and told them his little tale and made Matt the bad guy. There was no way in hell Matt would do as he threatened because he bet the guy would talk himself out of it once again. It was unfair, so fucking unfair, but Matt couldn’t afford to do it. He had already too much on stage. 

“Yeah, yeah, go crying to the cops again since it worked the last time so well.” Andrew leaned against the fence, his smile long gone. 

Matt tried to breathe in and out, calm himself down, so when he leaned towards the asshole, he felt himself shake. “You. Will. Clean. It. Is that clear, Hunter?” 

His only answer was a roll of dark blue eyes and a turned back when the kid started to walk away. Matt barked after him angrily, feeling his blood boil out of their wains. His brain was filling with fog. “Calm down, dude. I’m just getting the shovel, okay?” 

Matt slumped against his old car – Opel Commodore, year model 1967 – and let out a sigh. He rubbed his eyes and decided his life was hell. Nothing went as it should and nothing worked out when he tried to make it work. What was wrong with him? Had he committed some unforgivable crime in his last life to deserve such a faith? Not that he actually believed in faith or past lives or fortune telling or whatever. He just wanted some kind of answers to the messed up situation that was his life. 

Rounding a car, he sat on the hood of it and lit a Chesterfiel. He felt the nicotine burn his throat and bring his tingling nerves to calmness. Grey smoke rushed forward into the air like something was chasing it. For a while Matt heard sounds only normal for a suburb – someone honked their car and somewhere kids’ laughter covered the curious gossiping of neighbourhood ladies. Then he heard a creak that belonged to the shed of the Hunters. Matt buried his head to his knees for a while, then dragged another breath of smoke. He watched as the dark haired young man hopped over the fence easily. He shook his head and continued making sure the work was done. There was no way everything went this smoothly with Andrew Hunter. The guy had to have some sly card hidden in his sleeve. 

For a while Matt thought the guy had at least a little bit humane feelings in him after all but then almost choked to the smoke when he heard the first words. 

“Ya know, you’re gonna get a heart attack with all the greasy food, beer and nicotine you consume every day.” Then Andrew shrugged with a light smile on his face. “You’d deserve it, though.” 

Matt frowned and tried to ignore his shaking hands. “What do you know about the way I live, huh?” 

“It’s not that hard when you sit right on that spot drinking and smoking every evening. Not to forget how your fridge looks like.”

Matt’s hand halted in the middle of its movement towards his mouth. “What?”

“Your fridge looks like shit. Literally.” 

“And how the fuck do you know how it looks?” 

The guy didn’t answer and continued to shovel the last of the bio waste into the bucket. He looked pleased with himself. A cold feeling that resembled too much dread slowly creeped up Matt’s back. 

“Have you broken into my house!” 

“Hey, you’re the criminal here, not me.”

Matt didn’t ask what the other guy meant with that since he definitely didn’t have any criminal record. He tried to detect a lie, hesitation, guilt, glee, anything on Andrew’s face but saw only a content little smile. A smile that fitted to a true Asshole with a capital A. Andrew the Asshole. If Matt didn’t like Mr and Mrs Hunter as much as he did, he’d have changed the name on their mailbox into that. 

But unlike their son they were decent people. 

He decided to swallow his next words because those would have only ended up biting his own ass in the end, but it left behind this bitter taste. He wanted to wash it down with something – preferably with a cold beer. He grunted when Andrew’s words came back to his mind. That shit had spoiled even alcohol for him. He threw the stub to the gravelled road and suffocated it with his heel. Fuck that guy. He could finish his work without guarding. 

Matt ignored a shout about him being ungrateful – with an acted anger, of course, since Andrew had no right to be pissed off – and slammed the door shut. A quietness that followed the echo was deafening. Somewhere an old grandfather clock ticked monotonously without missing a beat. Television was still flashing blue light to the dark living room which had its blinds down – a proof of how he’d rushed out after seeing Andrew doing his “little accident” from the kitchen window. The coffee he’d just poured then was now cold and definitely bitter. He didn’t even try to taste it but threw it to the sink. Matt leaned against the kitchen counter, hanging his head low. Whatever. 

And this was supposed to be a relaxing day-off after a long time. Last weekend he’d been busy with talking to his lawyer and a weekend before that that shit had started his very common and very regular accidents. Matt scoffed, knowing quite well his new neighbour had something against him – but what, it was beyond him. He’d done absolutely nothing to the other man or his parents and sister. He’d just been living there quietly and most likely would have ignored him and everyone else for a long time. He wasn’t in the mood to deal with others but apparently his sworn enemy had decided otherwise. Not only was he an ass, he was a selfish ass. Andrew Hunter knew absolutely nothing and deserved to get some kind of slap against his huge ego. 

Matt slammed the radio on and decided it was time to feel hungry. He took a left over pizza from the top shelf and ignored, once again, the words about getting a heart attack soon. The pizza was still good, he’d eat it. Only a light and couple of beers were left to the cold shelves. He hesitated a minute. Fuck it. Only two beers and a light were left to the fridge. A low hiss filled the kitchen with some 80’s hit song in the background, whatever its name was again. 

The food was good and greasy and unhealthy as fuck but Matt felt at peace. He liked the coldness of his drink in his throat as he listened to an old and clear voice explaining the news of the world. Some shooting again, the government declared a decision to cut the payment of the students, unemployed and elders – _“Fuckers”_ – and some girl had a genius dog who could dance for the techno beat. They were going to have some silly competition for dogs who could dance, too. Matt downed the rest of his beer before it would become bitter and warm. The world was sure a crazy place. He let his eyes wander to the yellow neighbour house where a red car drove up to the garage. No wonder their son’d gone crazy once again. No one was home to notice how he wasn’t that golden boy everyone in his family thought he was. He’d gone to some fancy ass school and graduated as whateverwhocared. Then he’d suddenly returned home and didn’t continue living alone like any normal graduate young and definitely adult person would. Whatever his motivation was it was better be a good one because thanks to that he’d become Matt’s current nightmare. Or one of them, at least. His world wasn’t led by only one younger guy who thought he was better than Matt who wasn’t so well off. Not in home, not in work and not in a private life either. Definitely not in private life.

At least the dark haired devil had gotten his fun tonight so he was free. Maybe he could watch some telly or maybe look at his baby – the one that was still standing by his side no matter what – or maybe he could finally take the trash out since it was getting smellier than the Hunter’s rotten food earlier… 

There was a sad thudding sound. A hand around a tin gripped harder and grey eyes looked alerted. His gaze wandered right away towards the yellow two-store house. 

A thud was there again and then another and another and another. It was coming from the upstairs. For a while Matt contemplated if it was worth it to even check, he knew that way he was playing right into his neighbour’s hands, but he really had to check what was going on. Just in case anything was actually broken. And when there was a clear crash he was already running up the stairs. He ignored the door to the toilet and to a nursery and opened one to his bedroom. Right then there was a thud once again and he saw that just right across the yard and the fence at the next window there was a slim face, a stubbly chin, tanned cheeks and those goddamn devil red eyes watching at him amusedly. The guy had something in his hand and then he lifted it behind his head and threw. It landed right in the middle of Matt’s window with a sharp crack and yellow substance started flow down towards the ground. It looked like an egg. It was an egg. 

…

That fucker was throwing eggs at his house.

A look he got back to his shocked one was challenging. Like telling him to do something about it. But the guy’s parents were home! Matt had seen them driving to the house. He stomped to the window and opened it like in a trance, only focusing his attention to the other window. 

“What the actual fuck are you doing?” He pronounced every word carefully with a hiss. “What. The. Fuck.” 

Andrew lifted his shoulders while grinning happily. He wasn’t happy. His eyes were still telling something completely different. “Saw something that resembled you and decided to give it back to you?” And lifted another rotten egg. “It’s a gift.”

Matt just stared. This was straight out vandalism, destroying someone else’s property. A crime! Still, instead of threatening the guy with the police once again, he ended up saying, “I don’t want it.” He felt stupid when Andrew rolled his eyes, a cynical look in them. 

“No one asked you, idiot.” 

“Seriously, you’re crazy.” 

“Nah, just treating you like every human being should.” 

Matt licked his lips and looked away for a while. Then he asked the question that had been bothering him since the first time Andrew had wet Matt with a garden hose, the time he’d scratched Matt’s new family car that probably would never be used, the time he’d yelled dirty, flirtatious words in front of Matt’s friends, embarrassing Matt, the time he’d lied everyone else and told it was all an accident. “Why?”

The last hint of anything towards to positive feeling left the crazy neighbour’s face. “Are you seriously asking me why?”

Matt tapped the window board. “Yeah. I’ve done absolutely nothing to you or anyone else you know.” 

“Go fuck yourself.”

Then he slammed the window shut with a dangerous rattle and disappeared like he’d never been there. Matt was left a mouth hanging open, once again a rotten smell in his nose. After a while which felt like hours he shut his own window and sat down to the double bed. He kinda felt like fucking himself, actually, since it’d take his mind away from everything confusing. He shook his head and let the fingers comp through his hair. The locks ended short and his fingers were left touching air. 

So he was at fault, huh? 

He straightened his back. 

Like hell he was. 

He’d done absolutely nothing wrong. He’d been nice to his neighbours and friends his all life, he hadn’t said mean words to anyone and he definitely hadn’t done anything against the law. Yeah, he had his flaws but he’d done nothing bad on purpose, especially not to the Hunter family. 

That little shit had gone too far and ran wild for far too long. It was time to put a stop to this. He was no pushover. 

~

It was so early in the morning that even the sun was still down. The temperature though didn’t seem like it since a tank top was enough to make Matt’s skin shine with sweat. Perfect weather for some soft and disgusting peaches. He hummed quietly, feeling confident and sure of himself. For a while he watched how the inhabitants of the suburb drove by, leaving for work. Even if it was summer, the everyday life didn’t stop for many people. Unlike others even Matt had to leave for work in fifteen minutes. But he was in time, he’d woken up especially early just for his lovely, dark haired dem—I mean, neighbour. Clock stroke half past five; it was time. 

He watched calmly as the first pebble hit the curtain covered window just right across his bedroom. If he was lucky, he didn’t wake up any other person in the house but just the one he’d wanted. He took a risk that this indeed was his biggest hater’s window. 

Nothing happened. He threw another one and the third one right away without missing a beat. He hummed the melody of that 80’s song he’d heard on the radio yesterday. Such a happy melody, indeed. Fitted right to his mood like these stones to that window. 

Finally the curtains moved aside and a messy main of dark hair appeared to the window. Eyes squinted at him showing how out of it the guy was. Matt felt a chuckle – an evil one, mind you, he hadn’t known it was possible to laugh like those villains in superhero movies – bubbling in his chest but he kept it in. He let a pleasant, friendly smile form to his lips. He didn’t admit he’d learned that expression right from the demon itself. 

“G’morning, Hunter,” he greeted, drawling the words a way he knew annoyed many of his friends. “Such a pleasant morning, isn’t it?”

“Wha?” Andrew’s voice was groggy and sounded like some adolescent kid’s cracking voice. 

“Your gift yesterday was such a nice thought so I wanted to give a little payback.” He made a gesture to his walls and window that he was yet to clean. He had wanted to leave an evidence out. Andrew’s eyes followed his movements like in a trance. Then the blue eyes found him holding a fruit in his hand, observing it like it was something out of Earth. 

“You might want to move aside.” And he threw. The peach splattered right in the middle of the younger man’s face and he staggered behind. Then Matt threw another one and it hit the wall in the back of the room. His aim was still on but he’d been one of the best baseball pitchers back in High school, after all. He listened with a giddy feeling in his gut how rotten fruits splashed against walls, Andrew, window. And the asshole couldn’t even say a thing because he was so confused. 

After four fruits Matt stopped and kept the smile on, like nothing but a pleasant conversation had happened. Andrew was about to open his mouth, probably to yell something with a loud and annoying voice so Matt rushed to say the last word. 

“Hope you like your present.”

And then he left for work with a skip in his steps and a whistle in his lips. 

~

 _In Sex and the City, six letters_. Matt fiddled a red pen between his fingers and after a while of thinking put the other end to his mouth. How the hell would he know some fucking Sex and the City character or actor? It was more Lydia’s field of knowledge. He couldn’t ask her anyway so he decided to move to some other word. The crossword puzzle was filling itself slowly, an old grandfather clock was ticking in the living room, telling it wasn’t 9 o’clock yet. 

_Flower_. Is that all he fucking got as a clue? Like there wasn’t shit-load of flowers in the world anyway. Whoever had made this crossword puzzle was an idiot or a sadist.  
He heard a low knocking somewhere. Was it coming from his door? He listened for a while and it finally stopped. Whoever it was, they’d given up and he wouldn’t have to rise from the toilet seat. He wasn’t ready anyway. 

And that fucking crosswords too. 

Knocking was there again just as regular and loud. Something was amiss with it. Matt frowned and listened, something nagged the back of his mind. It’d been too silent and calm after he’d come home. Nothing had been done to his yard or house either, so he’d just cleaned up the rotten eggs and continued his life with a pleased feeling. He’d thought he’d won but…

Knocking stopped for a second and then continued again. Matt rose with a flash and flushed the toilet. He ran to the front door and tried to open it.

The door only budged and crashed against something else. 

He pushed harder, rattling the door knob. Banging stopped and nothing happened. What he saw from the window lowered his mood more than any resent trick or divorce or fucking whatever. Andrew Hunter walked across his yard carrying blanks and a hammer. A cold dread pooled in his stomach. He opened a small window that was way too small to fit him out.

“Did you just board my door shut!?” 

The lean male stopped and turned to him with flashing eyes. 

“You called for this.”

Matt opened his mouth only for a whimper come out.

_“I fucking did not!”_

All that asshole did was shrug and then turn to continue his way back to his own house. Matt was left to watch there stupidly, without able to do a thing with the blocked door. 

_“Wait!”_ His yell was ignored and a cold and hot blood boiled once again. He was getting a heart attack because of that little shit and not because of his lifestyle. He slammed the small window shut and ran a hand through his hair. It felt greasy and he definitely needed a shower. But first he needed to get those blanks out of the way. There was no way no one had seen what that guy had done. Or they just didn’t care which was unbelievable because he hadn’t known he was hated in his neighbourhood. Life sucked. Hard. 

Backdoor. 

He took long steps to the last door that was his hope. He tried to push it but something was in the way. _No fucking way!_ He sank down into a fetal position and growled. Growled so hard he bet even that cursed Hunter family heard him. They were all cursed because of that one guy. It was their fault anyway there was any Andrew Hunter. Even the sister’s. Maybe she’d encouraged her parents to get her a little brother. 

He ignored the fact the sister was actually younger than Andrew. 

Did he seriously have to climb out of the window? Seriously? _Seriously?_ A sob escaped his throat. Whatever. He swallowed his pride and opened the Livingroom window. He tried to wiggle his way past a TV and couple of half dead plants and once he was on the sill he lost his balance and rolled to the ground without grace. 

He cursed under breath, cursed everything else too and brushed himself off. It wasn’t nice to fall to a flowerbed. Especially when you’ve let it go wild and it was filled with burdocks and nettles. He turned slowly around, rubbing his bare arms. He froze. 

His backyard neighbours were watching him with differing expressions. The wife was looking mouth hanging open, the husband was snickering without even trying to hide it and the kids were whispering something about weirdos. Matt nodded politely and went to his shed, hoping it wasn’t blocked or he’d have to rip the boards off with bare hands. 

~

Okay. So, he wasn’t going to be a childish one. He was already 25 years old man with a steady job, ok income and… yes. And stuff. He didn’t dare to remember that other stuff. Anyway, he hoped that brat was happy now that he got the final word in by locking Matt into his own house so Matt wasn’t going to have a revenge – no matter how sweet it’d be – but he’d ignore the guy altogether. So the next day he’d decided to do something to his life after falling into a wild and stingy flowerbed. He’d dragged the lawn mower out of the shed after work and started to get rid of the over-grown grass despite the heat. If he waited for colder weathers he’d have to wait until the greenery was approaching his rooftop.  
He thought he’d get to be all alone but of course that wasn’t the case. When he came around the corner and the yellow house was in sight, he saw something else too. There he was again, leaning against the fence like he owned it. His face was indifferent and no one else was around. Matt steeled himself just in case but walked past the man like he wasn’t even there. 

Andrew looked like he was ignoring Matt too. That was just perfect. 

It took at least three rounds back and forth the grass next to the fence when Matt finally heard something over the engine. 

He didn’t hear what it was, though, so he continued cutting the grass feigning he hadn’t noticed a thing. 

Voice started to speak louder and Matt made a movement that made the machine roar louder. He almost snickered. Almost.

Suddenly the mower whined and clanked as something went inside of it. The engine made a sad sound and almost froze. A stone flew out of it. Matt turned to the culprit with murder in his eyes and let the machine go quiet. 

“Are you seriously so into fucking up my stuff, huh?” 

“Of course not, whatever you mean with that,” the guy responded, smiling in a way that reminded a lot of that one mean bitch at high school. That girl always talked bad about others behind everyone’s backs, she was like a snake and she had had always that smile when she was just being fucking annoying. He had ended up marrying that girl. 

“Then leave me alone.” Matt couldn’t believe how bitter his own voice sounded. He had never sounded like that. If he wasn’t so full of it he would’ve been more shocked of what had happened to him. Instead he just put the engine back on and tried to tell his hands to stop shaking. 

“I need to talk to you,” Matt heard over the engine. He scowled and sighed. 

“Out with it, then.” 

“Stop doing that and listen.”

Matt scoffed. “Fuck off by all means. I’m busy.”

There was a silence.

“Look, I’m not stopping my work for you so go on and say it. I’m being generous and listening.” He paused for a heartbeat. “For now.”

Silence lasted so long that Matt thought the guy wouldn’t say anything. But then he heard a steady voice say, “What you did yesterday was unforgivable. You had no right to mess up my room.” 

Matt stopped, then continued. He almost laughed. It seemed like Andrew didn’t like being ignored because soon his steady voice wasn’t so under control anymore. “Did you hear me? _You_ messed up my room and you’re…”

Matt let go of the lawn mower and walked up to the fence. He kept his eyes locked with the blue ones, making sure his every emotion was easy to read from them. He shook, his arms were still stinging from the yesterday’s fall, his back was slick with sweat, his mind filled with only one emotion – rage. He could see how the guy flinched back and hardly kept himself rooted to his spot. He saw how Andrew’s eyes widened slightly, moving away from his eyes briefly to Matt’s bare chest, then back to the face. He saw how his Adam’s apple popped as he swallowed nervously. He saw how he licked his lips as his gaze flickered once more down. Matt leaned in, their noses almost touching, and he said with a low, gruff voice,

“You fucking dare to blame me.” He couldn’t keep the shake off of his voice. “When you’re the one who’d messed up everything.” 

He saw how Andrew wanted to say something but nothing came out. 

_“You.”_

He leaned out, content with the reaction he got. The man was quiet, unable to say anything. The message had finally gone through and Matt seriously wished it had also done some good. He smirked. Andrew turned his head away with still wide eyes, a look of disbelief in them. 

Matt continued to cut his grass in peace.


	2. The Best Damn Soap Opera in the World

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: awkward sexual jokes. I can't joke.

II

Andrew was yet to come back. He’d been unusually quiet for two days straight but Matt was sure the truce was only temporary. Even if he’d have loved it, it wasn’t realistic to think the Hunter kid had bullied him only for two weeks straight and then suddenly stopped after few angry words. But Matt had been seriously angry that day and he still was. He’d only calmed down a little and was now able to think straight.

The silence was ominous. 

He was sitting high on a vertical metal buttress of a five-store-building he was working on. The construction site was full of men clad in working clothes, sweat shining from their foreheads. The sun was shining with full force and only getting worse. He inhaled prickling smoke into his lungs and let it affect. Despite the buzzling around him his mind was feeling calmer than it’d been long time. There were heavy steps on a metal approaching him but he kept looking down to the people and different trucks. The voice was familiarly deafening. 

“Hey, man.”

Matt grunted, knowing well who sat beside him, letting his feet tangle over the railing. 

“What’s up?” 

“Good.” He was feeling better than in a long time. Not perfect, but better. Robert seemed to notice it too, that guy’d always seen through Matt. They went long back, after all, till middle school. They hadn’t always been best of friends but friends anyway. Years had only done good for them, making them closer to each other and forcing them to know each other too well. Whether it was good or bad was another thing. At least there was someone else to talk to than his crazy next door family. And his car. 

“Dude, you’re looking to the distance like some fucking Disney princess. Yeah, seems fine to me.” Then Robert smiled widely. “Please don’t say you’re going to sing some melancholic song too.” 

“Shut up, you dick.” But Matt couldn’t keep a smile out of his otherwise tense face either. He shook his head and snorted softly. They laughed together for a while, looking the life fold out below them. Then the blond man’s smeared face faltered until the smile was gone. 

“No, seriously, Matthew. How’re you holding up?” He lit a cigarette with a flick of a wrist. “Still nothing from Lydia.” 

Matt scowled, his relaxed mood long gone. He rose to his feet, not feeling like telling a thing, but his persistent friend stood up with him. He looked at the warm brown eyes until sighing in defeat. 

“Still nothing. Not for a week.” He threw the thump out. “She’s set to keep me out of their life.” 

A heavy hand patted his shoulder and for a while Matt was afraid he’d fall down to the flat ground. Not because of the force, not because he doubted his own balance but because the weight of the situation felt more real than in a long time. He closed his eyes for a second and made sure to open them before Robert saw a thing. A thirty minutes break was already up and they were supposed to be back to work already. Or maybe it’d been up already five minutes ago. Better move before anyone else noticed. 

“Hey, chin up, buddy. She can’t keep you out for a long. They have no reason to not to let you see Sam.” 

Matt hesitated. 

“Or do they?”

“Of course not.” His answer was too quick. Robert laid a heavy stare on him and Matt relented. “I don’t know. I wasn’t there much, maybe that’s why… But I wanted to be a good… a good…” 

He gulped down the words he hadn’t dared to even think for weeks. 

“Yeah.” 

They stood in a heavy silence.

“You’re a good man, Matt.” 

He gave Robert a one sided smile. “If you say so.”

Robert’s face lit up like a Christmas tree in early November. He flung his arm over Matt’s shoulders. “I say so! I’ve known you long and I know you’re not acting like yourself right now. And I know that you’re a gentle guy and wouldn’t even hurt a fly on purpose. So fucking forget them for a while and come out with me, Luke and Jerry tonight.”

“I don’t know…” 

“What? It’d disturb your self-loathing? Your lonely night together with your left hand and a beer? Shut up and come, it’s an order.”

A small laugh pushed the awkward atmosphere out of the way. “Whatever you say, boss.”

“That’s my man, Mcfall. At seven at Hailey’s?”

“See you there.”

They parted and Matt was even more unsure of himself than before. But maybe he’d just needed to get fucked up to get his life back to tracks. 

~

It was overestimated to think he’d have needed to get seriously pissed to get his life back to its tracks. All he’d gotten was confusing advice and a headache. When he woke up in the morning, knowing too well he had a 9-hour work shift to do, he’d seriously considered calling in sick. His head pounded his skull into mushed potatoes and his insides were twisting into million knots. It took at least half an hour to get out of the toilet and drink some coffee to clear his head. At least there were no disturbances anywhere. No crazy next door kids, no babying best friends and definitely no calls from lawyers. His mood and his worries weren’t gone though. In contrary they’d multiplied with a hangover of a millennium. He even hated himself now. 

It wasn’t any wonder when he got home after five he went straight to the shower and bed. He would have slept gladly through the evening till next morning hadn’t it been to the doorbell that demanded his attention. Whoever it was could fuck off but when the bell rang for the fifth time Matt gave up and went to see who the hell had made his day a living hell. 

Behind the door stood a smiling lady with curly dark brown hair and green eyes. Her smile left dimples behind on her wrinkling cheeks and the dress she wore didn’t do much to cover her thin figure. Matt knew way too well who she was and almost groaned out loud. She was a reason he had such a headache as a neighbour. Or at least one of the two reasons. But instead of whining about the unfairness of her decision that she’d made about 20 years ago with her husband, he put a friendly smile on his face and asked,

“How can I help you, Mrs. Hunter?”

Jenny Hunter put a hand on her cheek and giggled like a school girl. She was kind of… not so normal person either. Not in a bad way, though, since Matt had seen what kind of bad weird a Hunter could become. He stood there patiently waiting for a middle-aged woman get over her unexplainable giggling attack. 

“Sorry for disturbing you, honey, but I’m in a very big pinch.” She dramatized her every word with her facial expressions. “I hope I didn’t disturb you. Oh dear lord! I didn’t, right?”

Ignoring his twisting stomach he shook his head. “Of course not. I was just resting.”

“Oh well, if you’re sure then.” She still looked worried and Matt nodded in reassurance. “You see, our kitchen pipe is dripping, I don’t know where the problem is and it’s already too late to ask a plumper to check the pipes. My husband’s not home either and my lovelies Andy and Anne don’t know a thing about fixing things.”

So there was something _dear Andy_ couldn’t do. Matt grinned and said, “I’ll help gladly. I’ll come there right away. Just let me pick up my tools.”

Matt was a multitasker. Even though he’d educated himself to be a builder, he was a man who could do a little bit of everything. He could fix almost anything and he enjoyed it. His neighbours knew this well already, despite living in the neighbourhood only for two years. Those two years had been enough to get to know people around him well enough and those two years had been enough to mess his life into something completely different twice. 

He opened a creaking shed door and fished out his tool bag. After checking everything he needed was in, he headed for the yellow house. For a while he wondered whether the children were in but then simply knocked and decided not to let it change anything. He liked to help his neighbours and especially after everything that had happened he thought it was a good idea to keep his reputation as it used to be. 

Mrs. Hunter opened the door in a blink of an eye and soon Matt found himself ushered to the kitchen. “The problem’s right down there.” She opened the cupboard under the sink and about pushed Matt down there. Hesitating only a moment, Matt put his head into the closet and saw the problem.

“This is a basic leak so it should be fixed just with tightening the joint of the pipes.” He emerged from the dim closet with a flashlight. “Could you hand me a—“

His words were pushed aside just like he was. At one moment he was in the closet being the one who was supposed to check out the broken pipe and the second he was looking at the backside of the lady who’d asked him to do it. Matt turned his gaze elsewhere, having to look at the 50-something lady’s bum and the dress that had risen too up… 

Matt scratched his cheek and muttered, “I’ll just get that wrench myself, then.”

“So you mean that’s the problem, dear?” he heard the muffled voice ask from the darkness. _Yes, ma’am, it was the problem. And now if you’d just move aside…_

“Quite fascinating how good you are with your hands! You’re such an angel!” 

Matt ducked his head and ignored his hot face. “It’s just a basic leak, nothing much…”

Finally the curly head peaked out of the closet. “Don’t be so modest, Matty honey.” She didn’t seem to notice the man’s discomfort with whether he should touch the lady to get her to move aside or maybe he should ask her to move. Which would be rude considering it was her house. But if he touched her it’d look really weird and would be misunderstood. He didn’t want to be misunderstood since he definitely wasn’t into older ladies. And even if he was, he wouldn’t touch a married one. 

He wasn’t even ready to any kind of relationship nor a fling. The last relationship was still too fresh on his mind. 

What was he even thinking about? Matt shook his head, smiled politely and nodded to his right to get Mrs. Hunter understand he wanted to continue. He seriously felt he needed more sleep. His head was bounding the hangover, the conversation from the last night made his almost neutral mood sink like a ship and he was thinking about whether or not he was ready to have a fling with a 25 years older neighbourhood lady. 

Sometimes he wished he was a hermit living up in the mountains with his car. They’d be happy together without any living soul. 

He needed serious rest. 

He watched as the small woman crawled out of the hole she’d forced herself into (he needed to stop hanging around with the guys if that’s how his mind started to make puns out of awkward situations) and got back to work. He screwed the pipe tightly shut and inspected it for a while. It seemed to be okay once again. 

A small part of him remembered Jenny Hunters’ words of how her son couldn’t do the job. Matt crawled out of the closet with a smug smile on his face. 

Mrs. Hunter was making some fresh and aromatic coffee. Matt sniffed the air in anticipation. His stomach agreed on the need of some caffeine too. 

“Please sit down.” When Matt heard the words, he was already sitting and sipping some of the warm goodness. He felt the liquid move down to his hollow stomach, taking over his moody thoughts. He felt like for a while everything was just fine even when he was sitting in the enemy territory, even when his whole life was still a big ball of unsolved problems.  
Just a little sip of coffee and some not judging company was enough. He wasn’t even sure if the last night’s pub crawl had been a good idea. Sure, he’d gotten hammered and he’d loved that hazy feeling. But he’d had too much friendly counselling, mind shrinking and bad memories. He shook his head and looked up to the older woman who was putting the fifth piece of sugar into her drink. 

“So, how are your children, Mrs. Hunter?” 

Mrs. Hunter’s face brightened in delight like there wasn’t better topic for her. Matt could see how her eyes shone with pride and happiness as she sipped her over sweet coffee and said, “They’re great, thanks for asking, honey. And just call me Jenny.”

She winked and Matt shifted uncomfortably. 

“Andy’s with his friend right now. They’re actually coming up with a new recipe for a dessert that’s suitable for young people’s parties. Our Andy’s such a smart boy.”

Matt’s lips stretched painfully.

“You must have heard how he graduated from…”

“Yes, ma’am, I’ve heard.” Matt pit his tongue and grimaced. Mrs. Hunter looked startled over his sudden disturbance. “I mean, it sure is great and all… Y-you must be proud.”

Jenny Hunter’s face lit up again. “Oh yes, very proud.”

“Great.” Matt stirred his coffee loudly. “How’s Anne?”

“Oh, our Anne’s working right now.”

“Working? I thought she’s still in high school.”

“Sure she is but it’s only a summer job.” She waved her hand and rolled her eyes. “She’s always talking about how she’s going to see the world and other silly things so she’s now working to get money for that. She’s such a dreamer. Funny, isn’t it?”

Matt looked around, trying to find a way out of the situation. He chucked the scalding drink down with one. 

“Oh, your mug’s empty.” Mother Hunter rushed to the coffee pot and filled Matt’s mug. He forced himself to stay put and not run away screaming. He was such a wimp. Was he actually thinking about running away from an old, dry lady? He could easily tell her off if he felt uncomfortable but instead he just sat there drinking her coffee that didn’t taste so good anymore and thinking about things that forced their way up to his mind. 

Travelling. Maybe Lydia’d left because she’d wanted something more than Matt. Maybe she’d been bored with him. He hadn’t noticed anything but then maybe that was his fault. He’d tried, he’d wanted them to be happy peacefully, he’d wanted to… he gulped the word down, once again. Robert had almost forced them out of his mouth, made him finally break. 

Damn he’s such a wimp. No wonder she always told him to man up. 

Then happened what Matt had feared. He hadn’t thought it right away and it hadn’t been the first thought in his mind but somewhere inside his subconscious he’d known this question wouldn’t go without asking. When Matt heard Mrs. Hunter ask with a sweet and well-meaning voice “How’s Sam” he felt the ground swallow him. Literally. He wasn’t much of a poet and he definitely didn’t care about dramatic picturing but on that moment he felt like there was no ground under his feet. 

A literal description for a literal man. 

“Dear God, Matty! Is everything okay?” 

Matt blinked and saw he was half on the chair, half on the floor. He shook his head and rose his hand to drag it through his face. It shook. He couldn’t place it on his face. He closed his eyes for a second because he knew he was being ridiculous. Maybe that Andrew the Asshole had been right – his lifestyle wasn’t doing any good for him. When was the last time he’d eaten anything else but two slices of pizza? Had he even eaten today? 

“Oh dear Lord, Matthew honey.” The voice was getting louder and Matt opened his eyes. He dragged himself back to the sitting position before looking straight to the worried eyes. Mrs. Hunter was standing next to him, her hand on his arm like trying to keep him steady. Not that it’d be easy considering how different size they were. 

“It’s cool, I’m sorry.” He dragged in a deep breath. Fuck, he could do with one or two cigs now. 

“A-Are you sure you don’t need an ambulance?” Her eyes darted to the direction of the phone. He shook his head quickly because damn if he went to the doctor now because of how wrecked his nerves were. He knew why he was like he was and hated to think that dude had been even partly right about him. But most of it was emotional. 

“Then a pain killer? Are you in pain? Fever? Anything?” 

“No, ma’am, I’m just—“

“No, please, you need a pill. Just a minute!” And then she was standing on an unstable kitchen chair, reaching further up than she was capable of reaching. Matt jumped up.

“Hey, it’s fine, come down now, please.”

“No, no, I’ll get it…” She huffed. Matt was once again alone with his hands, not knowing what to do. Fucking children talk. Nothing good ever came out of them. 

“Ma’am…”

There was a sharp creak and then clattering as the chair started to lean backwards. But Matt was ready. He grabbed the small woman by the waist and helped her down safely. She was so light that it was a miracle the chair had even started to fall under her. They were both quiet for a while, their ears ringing after all the shouting. Then Matt heard a low growl and a murderous “What the fuck!?” 

“What’s going on here?” Andrew was standing at the entrance of the kitchen, looking both pale and red. Matt rose his brow for a minute challenging the man to state his business. He was in no mood to argue about anything especially after a few days silence. If the boy had to start his hissy spitting he could do it tomorrow, please. 

But then Andrew’s eyes locked to Matt’s and Mrs. Hunters’ waists and Matt froze. Of-fucking-course. He didn’t even try to explain because there was nothing to even say! But in Andrew’s eyes Matt holding his mother close to him by her waist must have looked really suspicious. 

And even from behind.

…

He didn’t just think that.

Matt cursed. His life was starting to resemble a fucking soap opera. Just think about it; a bitchy ex, tragic separation from his little girl, a fling with an older neighbourhood lady who happened to be a mom of his sworn enemy… What next? A secret child with Andrew himself? Matt wouldn’t even be surprised at this point if it actually was true. 

So instead of staying to see how things would fold out he turned around with a salute ignoring a worried questioning of Mrs. Hunter (not about Matt but Andrew, like “why was her precious son so angry, was it because she hadn’t asked him to fix that damned pipe” or something) and the feeling of his peace shattering like a china vase. 

“McFall!” 

Matt didn’t turn around. He knew he’d hear from the younger guy soon enough anyway. 

But fuck man that two days of rest wasn’t even close to enough.


	3. The Game Is On, Hunter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I played otome games while writing this chapter.
> 
> EDIT//12.9. I added A LOT but only to the last part of the chapter. In other words Matt’s friends have now personalities which required 1k words more from me.

III

When Matt drove his car up to the driveway he knew something in his head finally snapped. He knew because he didn’t feel anger, he didn’t feel sadness, he simply got out of his car feeling absolutely nothing. His fingers were prickling like a circulation had been cut off for a while and the blood was now rushing back with a hurry of a dying man. His face didn’t even twist when he read a word the red letters spelled on his front door. He didn’t even answer at first when the way too familiar police officer greeted him with a disappointed grunt. 

Matt simply decided quietly in his head that he was going to lose this battle too. 

“Mr. McFall?” 

Matt dug out a cigarette and lit it. The end of the stump shone red. 

“Mr. McFall, the situation’s not going to get any better if you continue to ignore me.”

“I didn’t do it.” Matt sat on the hood of his only friend and put the keys into a safe place. It wouldn’t do to lose her too. He patted the red hood affectionately. The officer didn’t seem to agree with Matt about how great his car was but fuck him. He didn’t know anything.

The officer’s dark eyes narrowed into a calculative stare, the one that Matt had seen the detectives use on the suspects in crime shows. “So you mean to say the text just suddenly appeared onto your door or that your neighbours were wrong with reporting this eyesore?”

“You seriously think I’d write _homewrecker_ onto my own god damn house, huh?” Two fingers crushed the filter with a quiet snap. The other man opened his mouth but then closed it and sighed. 

“Do you know who would have done it then?”

Grey eyes observed the guy warily. “Will you believe me if I tell you?” 

“Are you still stuck on that last issue?” the officer grunted. They seemed to remember the same catastrophic rotten food scene. “I thought it was clear what happened.”

Matt snorted. 

The nameless officer wasn’t amused. 

The silence between the two grown men lasted so long that Matt started to feel ridiculous. Like he was the one at fault here. He threw the stump to the ground and lit another one. Fuck it, he could just as well do the report again and get the shit for that later. He’d get shit anyway. He was an official _‘homewrecker’_ of the neighbourhood now anyway. Andrew Hunter had decided Matt had tried to seduce his mother so whatever. It wasn’t like explanations would go through that thick head.

Matt heard a bang of a door and his eyes travelled automatically to the right direction. There stood the evil son of a bitch, trying to look horrified and failing badly. “Try talking to him.” Matt directed the officer’s gaze to the dark haired guy with his thumb. 

The man grunted. “Mr. Hunter again?” 

“Yes, it was definitely him.” 

The bushy brows frowned. “Mr. McFall, if you keep blaming on…”

“Mr. Officer,” Matt said and stood up. “I told you what you wanted to hear and I’m done.” He blew a cloud of smoke into his face, feeling reckless as fuck and tired as hell. “If Hunter doesn’t fix what he’d vandalized I’m going to sue you and him both. Good day, sir.”

Then he walked away, a buzzing in his ears. He glanced at the direction of the demon who was grinning at him. Matt didn’t react, just turned his face away and ignored the feeling of eyes following his every movement. A stuffy smell hit his nose as he entered through the door that proclaimed he was the worst nightmare of all families and fell onto the sofa. He put the telly on but didn’t watch it. Dust was dancing in the small ray of sunshine. Otherwise it was dark and he preferred it that way. He wasn’t much about social status and pleasing people but fuck if he was ready to listen to shitty comments of how horrible a person he was or stand straight and proud under the judging stares. 

That Hunter had won, he’d made him hated in his own neighbourhood. If the guy attacked his workplace too there’d be no space for Matt to be himself and actually feel something else but negative emotions. 

He was getting tired of himself. He was getting tired of people all together and he was getting so tired of the silence. Sure he liked being alone, he did it often even with Lydia around and maybe that was the reason… maybe he really was a homewrecker. A rough hand pressed against the sweaty fabric of a t-shirt, just right under the heart. Matt tried to concentrate on it and not to the thought of how he was living in a shithole or any other self-hating pathetic stuff. 

The dust was really piling up. 

If the social workers, lawyers or whoever actually came to visit, they’d see how unsuitable figure he was to raise anything living. With a grunt he stood up and stomped up the creaky stairs. This time he didn’t walk past that one door he’d ignored for a month now. He let his hand hover over the handle before opening the door with a gentle push. The air even stuffier hit his nose. He stepped on the wooden planks that were more white than brown now and sat on the rocking chair in the far right corner. 

The room looked the same. It was still happy yellow, a colour she’d decided on her own. Matt had painted the walls, Lydia’d put the wallpaper on one of the walls. A small, white cot stood on the other corner – it was in a perfect place from the chair, the one he was supposed to sit on every evening and look after Sam as she slept. The chair creaked as he leaned backwards and his breathing was the only sound he could hear. Only a while ago there’d been quiet wails of a hungry human being, a soft singing of a gentle voice and heavy breath of the wind that pushed its way past the white curtains. The smell he had in his nose now held no hints of early summer flowers.

Matt gulped and stood up. He took a rag that was probably filthier than the shelf and started to sweep its surface. The dust made way to the cloth. He’d have to clean up sooner or later anyway because in the end there’d be strangers looking around the house, making comments and shaking their heads over how messy Matt was. And not only authorities but potential buyers. 

He had to face it – what would he do with a huge house which only brought him huge ass bills that were harder and harder to pay every day. There were bad memories too and the neighbourhood only made him feel worse because there was no one who was standing by his side. Two years ago the house had been his new hope for a nice life. He thought he could finally be happy, start a family, live a peaceful life. That was his dream. A slow paced lifestyle with people he loved. He wasn’t much of a talker but he’d thought it was okay. Lydia’d married him, after all. Yeah, she’d complained now and then but he’d seriously thought they were happy. She even invited him to live in this house – it was her childhood home too. Everyone around here knew Lydia so Matt was the stranger. Matt was the bad guy who was left alone for reasons no one knew, they could only guess. Of course it also meant they could let their imaginations run wild and come up with the worst scenarios. Because, c’mon, it was quite suspicious why the wife would suddenly disappear with the child after a year’s of marriage. 

There was a heavy knock but Matt continued his futile cleaning. Oil in the rag started to paint the surface with black. Grey eyes closed.

He was so sorry he couldn’t give Sam a home he’d promised her. 

Matt sniffed. There was a knock again and Matt opened his eyes. He blinked the blurriness away and decided the place was too dirty to be cleaned that night. Fucking dust getting into his eyes and nose. 

Someone was knocking on the front door and Matt stopped by the entrance. He stared intently at it. Like he was trying to see through the door, to see whether it was the officer or the asshole. They both were quite assholes, mind you. Matt definitely detested both of them. Then the banging stopped and everything went back to the quiet murmur of the talk show like no one was at the door at all. Matt let his shoulders fall down, he hadn’t even realized how tense he was. 

He continued his way to the kitchen. Tomorrow would be another day – hopefully better and neighbour free – and after work he had absolutely nothing to do. If possible, he’d laze around and forget everything for a while. Sure he had to fix terrace before anyone’s leg went through the rotten boards but he could just ask the guys tomor—

There was a rustling sound and something hit the heel of Matt’s shoe softly. Matt blinked but not because of dust this time. A letter? Or better a piece of paper. He couldn’t do anything but stare at it and the small crack under the door, through which it was pushed, for a while until he finally picked the paper up and opened it warily. Who knew with what it was poisoned. 

_I took out an engine of that shit you call your “baby”. Don’t think I can’t hear you muttering to yourself while you do something to “improve” that junk. That’s what you get when you try to play my own game against me, loser._

Matt blanched. 

What. 

The.

Fuck.

His… baby… A fist crumbled up the paper and threw it to the floor without mercy. That fucker touched his baby! That son of a… that…! 

That shit would pay! 

Matt ran outside not caring the door creaked quite dangerously from its hinges. He ran to his precious car faster than he’d ever ran a homerun during his baseball years and almost toppled over when he saw its hood open and the engine missing. He felt his eyes bulging out of his head and if it was possible felt them burst right there. His hand reached out to the empty spot that had been the heart of his best friend and for a while he knew he was capable of committing a murder. He’d gladly go to the prison if that little fuck would’ve just been squeezed out of existence like a disgusting little bug he was. 

He almost didn’t get a hold of the shovel that was laying around on his yard, his hands were shaking so badly. Only thing he could see was a shit-eating grin on that fucking face that’d soon look like a smashed potato. He fucking loved smashed potatoes. 

For once in his life Lady Luck was on his side. When Matt jumped over the fence and walked the straight line towards the garage no one was there to see him. He also couldn’t see anyone. Only imaginary Andrew Hunter, only the garage and only the black mountain bike that would take a place of Andrew’s face.

The brat was wrong. 

Matt wasn’t trying to play Andrew’s game.

He was going to fucking ace it. 

When everything finally went calm and when Matt’s nerves finally felt the satisfaction they deserved he was still not found. If he wasn’t bathing in the feeling of success, Matt’d have questioned his own luck. But right then he only saw his engine in the corner of the garage and while putting it back into its place he started to understand what he had to do. 

No, he didn’t have to kill Andrew Hunter.

…Even if that sounded quite nice. 

Matt had to show the guy who he was messing with. Screwdriver was held like a dagger in his hand and he almost stabbed the car with it accidentally.   
He decided to keep watch on the house with a camera and take the best photo of the century of the pained face of _dear Andy_ once he found out what’d happened to his bike. 

~

“Ookay… Care to explain why your porch looks like a wild moose trampled over it?”

Matt hummed, enjoying small rain drops on his bare skin. It’d been a while since it’d rained and it felt like heaven when combined with still warm weather. He leaned against Robert’s black van, half-heartedly glancing at the broken boards of the terrace and a nice, red _homewrecker_ message on the broken door. He shrugged and ignored his friend’s astounded expression. Actually the crunched face and bulgy eyes looked funny. He chuckled. 

“The hell now!” 

“Calm down, man.” He enjoyed the cold beer. “I just broke the moose’s bike after he stole the heart of my best friend.” If he was a little more outgoing and flashy, he’d have felt like winking. But that was just unmanly. And stupid. And Robert and Jerry would just laugh at him for the rest of his life like he was a joke.

“Moose’s bike? A heart of the best friend?” Jerry’s dark features were just as astounded as Robert’s. “Quit with fairy tales, man. Or did the stress finally make you nuts?”

Matt grunted. Maybe it did because if he really thought about it, there was nothing funny about the situation. The front of his house was a mess and it’d happened in the middle of the last night when no one was around to see. So of course there wasn’t any evidence against the guy and still, still, Matt felt like whistling. Damn, he just could as well. He let the melody of the same 80’s song come out with some missing notes… or a lot of them. He was tone-deaf alright.

“And now the guy’s whistling.”

“Gimme a break, Jerry.”

“Yeah, let the man whistle if he wants to show the world he’s as crazy as that front door of his.”

“Fucking moose.”

“There’re no moose, it was just a metaphor.” 

“Stop playing smarter than you’re, Rob.”

A loud bickering gave Matt more confidence to whistle with all he got. He felt his mood lighten as he grabbed the crowbar and joined the one guy who’d been quiet this whole time. Luke was both calming and unnerving company. He simply spoke when he had something to say and otherwise showed his support with his actions. Like right then the older guy was tearing off the rest of the planks and not bothering with commenting their state. They settled into a comfortable “silence” as Matt’s off-tune whistling was their only background sound. It nagged him to no end he still couldn’t get the name of the song into his head. 

The feeling was really great and he felt lighter than in a long time; it was just him, couple of his friends and some physical work. He let his muscles strain as he teared some of the more unbroken floor planks out. That kind of work didn’t require any thinking, he’d done it enough already anyway. More than he was used to. It was like him to get into the business without ifs or maybes and not let his brain rot with useless worrying. 

It was just tearing, straining and throwing. So simple, so much fun. He listened as his co-workers talked about this and that, their families, girlfriends, neighbours… oh, how he loved that topic. Matt even added a thing or two about them, nothing too much, though. 

He didn’t trust the guys to understand his revenge plans that he was mulling inside his head.

They kept working until the rain stopped and the sun came out for the last hours of the day. Matt was out of breath as he threw a new and whole plank onto the ground, abandoning it for a while. He sat to the ground next to Robert and took a sip from the bottle. 

The grass was still damp from the rain and it was making sitting colder, yet the chills felt oddly good. There was nothing perverted to it, alright. Matt pushed his cap further up. His thoughts started to really wander into more perverted stuff. But well, he was sexually quite active man and it’d been a while since… yeah, you know. He took another sip and turned to the guy to his right.

Luke was staring at the brightening horizon with a stern glint in his eyes. Whatever the guy was thinking, it wasn’t Matt’s business. He’d known the quiet man only for a year but knew quite well already that Luke’s mind wasn’t the nicest place on earth. Actually Matt was still having diverging opinions about their first meeting when Luke’d started to work for the same employer. They’d had their first job together with dozens of other men and women and Robert had been on charge of the group back then. He’d brought Luke to meet Matt during a break for some unknown reason. Matt was never quite aware of Robert’s intentions and that’s why he got some fucking shitty experiences with the guy. Luke might’ve been one of those. 

When he’d first set his eyes on a gigantic, muscular man with knuckles that seemed to have done something else besides construction work he felt this foreboding chill that was far from the nice cold chill Matt had felt just a minute ago. What had made Matt ultimately make his mind about that Luke was someone to be aware of was his eyes. He’d been staring at Matt with his cold blue gaze without blinking for minutes when he finally took Matt’s hand to shake it. At least the guy had done that but it must’ve been one of the only normal things Matt’d seen him do. He had no idea why Robert was friends with such a guy and already back then thought about kicking his “friend’s” ass and when Robert had left him alone with Luke – yes, alone, like some sick matchmaker – he’d decided to use a baseball bat instead of his combat boots. The stare Luke had was so calculating, so precise and it could have meant anything. In any case Matt felt he should stay on Luke’s good side. 

He hadn’t seen Luke act violently and he hadn’t even seen him to threaten anyone. Damn, the guy barely talked or interacted with anyone beside Matt, Robert and Jerry. Matt didn’t even have a slightest idea how Robert had come to know the guy or why the hell he even introduced them to each other. But after a year Matt’d started to be able to relax in Luke’s company. They weren’t exactly friends but they got along. 

As long as Matt kept quiet around him too. 

He let a nice chill run through his body once again and thought about standing up only for a second. Robert on his other side bumped into him and he almost clashed to Luke. Most probably the guy wouldn’t have even batted an eye but you never knew… Matt already knew he shouldn’t judge people on their appearance – just looking at the neighbour’s asshole whose appearances were quite easy to look at was enough to prove the point – but his senses were screaming like fucking fire alarms so it’s better listen to them.

“Fuck you, Jerry,” Robert muttered and Jerry’s high laughter pierced through the earlier silence. Now Jerry he could understand. Jerry and Robert got together well and they were so similar it wouldn’t be a surprise if they one day told they were twins or some shit. They were like siblings on anything but looks with Jerry being dark and Robert more to the Nordic type of person. Jerry had went to the same school as them and been with Robert longer than even Matt. Matt had known the guy through the social butterfly for years already and they’d started to go for a beer or two during their early twenties. He was a good guy, fucking rash and never really shut up with his jokes but hey, he balanced their weird group quite nicely. And he was one god damn good worker too. When Jerry started something, he also finished it fast. 

Now that he really thought about it, who the fuck was Robert? Was he just collecting some random pathetic dudes around him and then brought them together to fix someone’s destroyed shit or what? Just one word for Robert and soon all three would be there to do everything better faster. Matt let Robert clash with his arm once again and even bumped to Luke’s much bigger arm. 

Yep, just like he suspected. 

The guy didn’t even blink. 

It meant Matt would live one more day unless his shithead of a boy-next-door would decide he’d tried to do some fishy stuff with his Mom and taking his fucking engine, smashing his terrace and painting his door weren’t enough. 

If Matt wasn’t about to enjoy himself he’d have reported the guy to the police when he saw his car being touched. He would have had evidence. 

But fuck, he’d really wanted to fuck up that bike. A memory appeared to his mind and his lips curled up. That face the Hunter shit had made right after he’d realized someone’s shovel had met with his bike – face to face. Now that had been a beautiful picture. Maybe he should frame it and look at it every morning just to feel better about himself? 

A guy six years his junior wouldn’t walk over him. Not anymore. His parents might have forgotten to teach the guy how to treat their elders but Matt had just enough time to do the education. He should become a fucking teacher instead since he was awesome at the job!

“You guys hungry?” Robert’s voice cut through Matt’s inner musing and a pleasant picture of one freckled face distorted in agony was pushed away. Everyone agreed around him so his effort to actually speak wasn’t needed. “’S pizza good?”

“You better not feed that pig anymore pizza or he’ll turn into mozzarella in a near future.”

Robert, Luke and Jerry stopped moving until all three of them turned to look at the house next door. Matt didn't need to turn. He saw that dark hair and pale skin well enough anyway. The guy needed to see some sun in his opinion. But damn, his heart might have just skipped a beat. He couldn’t wait to mess up that little head even more.

“Err…” Robert scratched his beard and turned to Matt. His eyebrow was in the hairline. “And that guy is…?”

Matt stood up while digging up his phone to make a call to the local pizzeria. “My neighbour.” He’d play the “ignore the attention whore” game gladly.

Luke was grunting something. Matt couldn’t quite make out what he was saying but Jerry must have picked up something.

“Yeah, I think that face’s been somewhere.” he said while squinting.

“Might have seen him that one time…” Matt made a movement with his hand and then put it inside his pocket awkwardly. He kicked the grass. “Ya know, back then when he was yelling… stuff at me.”

It didn’t took even a second when Robert’s eyes showed he indeed remembered who the fucker was and what kind of dirty comments had been in the air that night. They all seemed to remember if Matt could read facial expressions at all. Andrew was there again, standing next to the fence and sneering at them. 

The guy had serious mental problems and he needed to be taken into a hospital. Matt’d love to do it himself. After he’d caused some additional injuries to that sickly face, of course. The guy’d destroyed his door and terrace after all so it’d be only fair for Matt. 

But then again…

Matt almost laughed out loud. He kept it in just and just but couldn’t help but smile at the younger man. He watched as the hell red eyes flashed like a forest fire. 

Matt grinned. He’d _fucking actually_ destroyed the guy’s bike and it’d felt so fucking good he was ready to destroy his shit again and again and again. 

“Well, if you don’t have anything else you can get going,” Matt said and started to dial the number he knew by heart. He was looking at the numbers on the display when something flew straight at him and knocked the phone to the ground. Matt watched as the phone and a shoe tumbled to the soft ground and thanked the gods for Andrew’s sake there wasn’t any hard ground underneath. 

Still, he felt his heart beating louder as he rose his eyes to the spawn of the devil. Their eyes locked. Matt wouldn’t lose. Not this time.

“What?”

Jerry whistled like he was impressed or something.

Andrew threw his head back so that his over grown hair flipped behind with the motion. He never took his eyes off of Matt. 

“I’ve been watching you…”

“Wohoah, creepy, dude!” Matt let his eyes flicker to Jerry only for a moment. Andrew’s face turned into a sour grimace and Matt knew his friend’s comment had been totally worth it.

“Could you shut the fuck u…”

“Okay, so you’ve been stalking me,” Matt cut in, almost feeling the breath escape his lungs when he saw how unhappy Andrew Hunter, the spoiled brat, was. “Now could you say what the hell you want and leave us the fuck alone?”

Andrew’s expression was only disgusted as he spit out, “So you still pretend you don’t understand?”

“No, I don’t fucking understand.” Matt took a step closer. “You keep destroying my shit, you keep fucking up my reputation and you still keep blaming _me_ like I’m some evil guy here. No, I don’t understand.”

He watched as the young man squeezed the fence so hard it’d break his skin. It’d serve him right. “So spit it out now or I’ll make sure you’ll lose something more precious than your fancy bike, okay.” 

Matt waited patiently as the Hunter kid shook. Finally it was someone else who was underhanded. It was clear Andrew wanted to look somewhere else than Matt’s eyes and Matt knew his eyes looked dangerous right then. It was no wonder. 

He really felt like smashing some skulls into the concrete. 

It was time to shove that attitude back up to the guy’s ass. 

“You’re pathetic,” he started. Matt lifted his brow curiously.

“Thanks, and?”

“Shut up. You pretend here with your friends like you’re some good guy when you actually are a crazy old man who beats people up and then act like some fucking saint!”

“What are you talking about?”

Andrew’s blue eyes shone darker than ever. He gritted his teeth and for a while it looked like the guy’d cry for real if he wasn’t so angry. Matt thought about taking a step back. Everyone around them were quiet, listening closely for the next words that’d tell a) nothing b) the truth why he was tormented so unfairly. Matt curled his fist. There really was a reason behind this? 

This hell would end if the misunderstanding was cleared?

The guy didn’t make his life purgatory only for fun?

His adam’s apple twisted as he gulped. 

“How can you bastard walk around freely after you hurt--!”

A loud clang and a whimper ripped them out of their little bubble. Matt’s head turned to the direction of the noise and even Andrew took few steps back. The younger boy was panting and still shaking. Matt frowned, he couldn’t get out the last word “hurt” out of his mind. Then he was startled out of his thoughts once again when Robert stood up to take a look at the old man that’d fell down with a bike right in front of their conversation. He was crumbled to the ground, holding his arm protectively as Robert helped him up. 

Matt shook his head and let it go. He took a deep breath before approaching the old man and his friend. What a timing the guy had had. But the accident had happened in front of his house so he could just as well get a little bit of his good reputation back and help the guy.

“Wanna sit down for a while?” 

The old man looked up at him and shook his head. He still caressed his arm but Matt wasn’t about to insist. If the man said he was okay, he was okay. He could take care of himself then. Instead of forcing the man to come and take a seat on one of his wobbly garden chairs, he picked up the bike and noticed the crash had caused some harm to it too. Without asking – because if he asked, the man would just shook his head with a stubborn look on his face again – he started to meddle with the chains and put them back with ease. He’d done it so many times before since he was just a kid. He handed it to the man. 

“Better look where ya go next time, gramps. The rode can be damn slippery right after the rain, ya know,” Robert said and laughed. The old man looked embarrassed.

The man nodded as a thanks. Matt nodded back and then they were once again back to the starting point. The truth, huh? He turned to his neighbour steeling himself to the next word after “hurt”. He had no idea what Andrew was talking about. 

So he turned back to him with a grim face and fear. He hadn’t done anything, had he? He expected to see an angry expression once again or fear or disgust. But when he saw confusion in blue eyes, Matt stopped in his tracks. Andrew was looking right at him with his mouth hanging open and his eyes looking like they saw something they couldn’t believe existed. Their eyes locked once again but now neither tried to get the upper hand. 

Matt wasn’t sure what he waited for. Why he just didn’t walk away and leave the guy to his existential crisis if that’s what was going on inside his crazy head. When nothing happened, Matt opened his mouth just to find out it was dry. He licked his lips and tried again. His voice was just a tired croak. 

“What were you saying?”

Blue eyes darkened slowly and finally turned into something between anger and disbelief. He shook his head and turned around without looking back. Matt watched as the guy walked towards Hunters’ house and never came back that night. It was just like that night before the whole misunderstanding with Mrs. Hunter happened. The kid got silent like he’d seen a ghost and then just disappeared without explanation. 

Would he leave Matt alone for couple of days again? Nah, probably not. Matt shouldn’t wish for the impossible. Besides Matt wouldn’t wait for Andrew’s attack. He’d gotten enough of “pranks” already so it was his turn to return the favour. 

“What the hell was all that about?” Robert’s deep voice grunted. Matt shook his head and answered the same way to Jerry’s questions. Luke’s light eyes didn’t leave his for a moment. The stern look hadn’t left and once again Matt found himself shifting uneasily on his feet. Then the guy spoke aloud clearer than Matt had probably never heard him speak. 

“You should move out.”

For once Matt agreed.

And yet he did not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo! I wanted to tell you some facts about the setting and the characters. So… yeah.
> 
> Setting: I haven’t told where this story’s taking place and I won’t even now because it’s not any existing place. I suddenly noticed I’ve been combining different cultures, environments and manners and this is the result. So if something doesn’t add up together it’s probably because the suburb resembles the ordinary American suburb and the gossiping old ladies with flower dresses are a bit more like British Keeping Up Appearances style but then again the food Matt’s making is what every Finnish person usually makes at home: meatballs with potatoes. Then I might sometimes make my characters take their shoes off as they enter the house – that’s what we do in Finland. Oh and a little part of the news at the first chapter is of the political situation in Finland atm. Actually I’m writing another original story too and it doesn’t take place in any existing place either. All I tell people in it is that it’s somewhere in Finland and that’s all. I like to give people a chance to use their imagination as well as for myself. It’s not as fun to describe real places as it is to come up with totally new one.
> 
> Characters: Matt’s like a stereotypical Finnish construction worker: quiet, sullen, uses his work clothes even at home, drinks some beer while tuning his precious car and swears a lot. Like I said, it’s a stereotype so I’m not trying to insult anyone. And as you can see, Matt’s quite a nice dude! Also, he’s a complete opposite of me. I know absolutely nothing about cars, I don’t drink much and I’m not a smoker. I know how to describe this stuff (not cars, they’re still a myth for me) because I’m a curious writer and I want to learn how everything feels/tastes/smells by myself. I also know some random stuff like cigarette brands cuz I was working at the local supermarket for couple of months. You learn quite strange things there about brands and people, I tell you. Matt also acts completely different from me but I think it’s only fun to write his character! Gives me challenge. Then Andy… I just wanted to portrait him like some villain but because nothing’s that black and white in real life he’s not completely bad guy yet he can be quite sly little fu—ahem, yes. New ship has been born! Finnish construction worker/Disney villain. Haha…


	4. Competition of Sorts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :Watching construction men right under my window. Knowing that one day they might get that building done and let us sleep in peace at mornings, fills me with determination.

IV

Matt let the warm morning sun heat his face as he sat on the windowsill of his bedroom. He took in a good breath of smoke and listened to the quiet sounds of the neighbourhood. Everything was so lively at this hour of the day when it was already around seven and not the usual 5 when he woke up every morning. He let his eyes fall close as he waited.

Soon he’d have the time of his life because yesterday night he’d been presented with the opportunity of the century. The best one of all of the opportunities, at least. He hummed lightly, deep in his thoughts, and thought about all the expressions, the yells and the angry, heated words he’d soon hear. Oh, but of course no imagined thing would ever beat the reality. 

And thank god that reality came in only five minutes because Matt wasn’t a patient man when he really wanted something.

He knew his grand play was starting up when he heard a muffled squeak and he let his eyes open lazily when the window banged open with way too much force. Luckily (or unluckily for Matt) the glass didn’t break when it banged against the wall. 

“You son of the bitch! You fucking criminal! You… you… little peasant!” 

Peasant was new. Matt smiled politely. 

“Good morning, neighbour.” 

Andrew’s eyes were glaring sharp daggers, his hair was messed to every direction and his face bright red probably from anger, sleepiness and shock. Matt drew out his phone and snapped a picture. Hunter’s eyes widened. 

“ _You just didn’t, McFall._ ”

The expression in this picture was very honest. This would go to his bathroom wall. Matt took another breather and waved his demonic little brick off. 

“How’s your morning?” 

Matt hadn’t known what kind of sadist lived inside of him, not until he saw that face. He was so glad he’d done it last night even though it’d been more nerve wrecking than anything he’d done in his life. He still remembered that light bulb that had popped up above his head when he’d seen Mrs. Hunter at his door, once again asking him to fix some water pipe. And this time it was the shower in the upstairs that needed maintaining. Then he’d realized that Andrew lived upstairs and the plan he hadn’t known he was able to come up with had formed into his mind. 

He’d brought two buckets of water inside the house and in the middle of night… Matt felt giddy as he watched the younger man’s inner and outer fight. For a moment Matt thought he’d be able to make the leap and jump right into Matt’s room. Then Andrew Hunter would have committed murder, gone to jail and Matt would’ve gotten rid of the little shit… and he’d be dead, so no.

“You broke into my house, you bastard!” 

“Technically I didn’t, because your mom invited me in.”

“Those fucking ice buckets weren’t there when I went to sleep!”

“Really now? Ice buckets? I guess you’ve taken your ice bucket challenges too seriously, eh?”

“I’m gonna fucking kill you!”

“Hmm?”

Matt enjoyed the troubled face and rose his leg up to the sill. His mind went right back to that night, to the time that’d happened only a little while ago. He’d actually done something criminal and some other time he’d have been ashamed of himself. But once he’d gotten the water buckets in, he’d made sure to sneak in through Andrew’s window to place them to the both sides of his bed. 

And of course to put in some nice ice cubes. The sneaking part had been horrible and reminded him too much of some horror game or that game called Thief because he’d had to listen closely to every snore and breath and make sure he didn’t even make a slightest thud or he’d be done for. Because what kind of explanation he’d have given for Mrs. and Mr. Hunter as why he was sneaking inside their son’s room. Thankfully Matt’d turned out to be a perfect thief and done his job flawlessly. 

His thanks to all those heart skips and nervous breakdowns was that quiet howl when Andrew had stepped into one of the buckets with his bare feet and felt through his entire body what kind of cold asshole he was. 

Matt chuckled. A slipper flew right into his window. He almost dropped his cigarette.

“Your aim is off.” 

“Screw you!” An alarm clock hit his arm and Matt reeled back. That fucking hurt! After that came a book that might had a red cover and finally something heavy Matt didn’t have time to see because he was trying to cover his face but it crashed quite hard against the wall and broke. 

Nothing happened in two seconds and Matt peeked at the panting guy. He was gripping the edge of his window and gritting his teeth. “You done?” Matt asked but his voice was a little wary. He didn’t really want to end up with a head injury. Andrew bit his bottom lip and looked like he was sulking.

“I’m going to come up there and…”

“What on earth is going on here?”

Andrew’s words were cut off and Matt saw soon why. The window next Andrew’s opened and Mrs. Hunter’s bony face pushed out. Matt did the first thing that came to his mind – he fell back and hid behind the wall. His heart missed a beat and something tied his insides into tight knots. 

“Andrew, what are you doing?” 

Andrew was tackling with his words for a while but Matt didn’t really feel any delight because of it. More than that he was a little afraid. He was fucking 25 for crying out loud and he was acting like some brat who was doing pranks to the neighbour’s mean kid. Matt let his head fall against the wall and cursed quietly. His slapped his face to get the hotness away. 

Finally Andrew seemed to get his act together. “ _That_ motherfucker broke into…”

“Andrew Hunter! Watch your mouth!” 

“Wha? I’m already 19, I can say whatever I want, mom! Because that little sh—“

“No, not in my house!”

“Better clean your mouth as your mother told you.” It was Mr. Hunter’s voice. Matt hadn’t seen the guy much because he never seemed to be home but he recognized the voice. It was sleepier than usual but just as soft. He lacked the mean streak that his son seemed to have. 

Why couldn’t that a-hole be more like his father? Where had he even gotten that foul attitude? He was like some evil Disney movie villain or some shit. He’d watched that one Disney movie couple of months ago as a research for Sam and now expected the little fucker would start sprouting some horns out of his head too. Or maybe he’d turn into a dragon because he already seemed to be flaming fire out of his mouth. Figuratively. Watching angry Andrew was like watching an angry dragon, ready to kill whoever had woken him up from his beauty sleep.

“Just… Just listen! That a… I mean, our _neighbour_ , Matthew McFall, broke into _my room_ and—”

“Oh dear Lord, Andy! What are you saying about our neighbour! Mr. McFall is a good young man and been through a lot so be nice to him!”

“He’s not been _through a lot_ because he’s just one big bastard!” His mother gasped and father sighed. “How can you say that when it’s Lydia who’s been your neighbour…”

“Oh, isn’t that Mr. McFall right over there! Matty dear, what are you doing there behind the window?”

 _Shit!_ How did she see him?! He looked down and saw his hand on the sill. He slapped his face. Idiot. He knew it was futile now trying to hide so he poked his head out of the window slowly and dipped his cap. 

“Morning, ma’am. Sir.” His voice was barely a mutter. He glanced at Andrew who was looking at him pointedly. Matt sighed. “Andrew.”

Jenny Hunter was just as bubbly and giggling as ever. “Morning, dear.” She patted her way too curly hair – how could it be like that early in the morning? “I’m so sorry about the noise. Andy here seems to have seen some nightmare and—“

“It wasn’t a _nightmare_!” 

His mother looked at him with a troubled expression. “Are you sure you’re okay, sweetheart? You don’t look so good.” Which was an understatement because the guy looked like he’d ran hundred miles, beat someone up and then thought about committing a murder in million ways. Matt scratched at his stubbled face – he’d forgotten to shave it that morning because of all the excitement. His eyes were watering too because he’d slept only about two hours. He bet he didn’t look any better than Andrew. 

Matt also felt awkward with the conversation. He thought if it was okay just to excuse himself with some task he probably should be doing because he wasn’t in any hurry to go to the work yet, either. Would it be rude to just say he had to go now and then actually not do anything? Matt wasn’t good with situations like this and hoped his fucking hand hadn’t been right there. Fucking traitor. Even his own hand was against him now. 

What a poor excuse of a man.

Matt stopped. He even sounded ridiculous!

Thank god there was another rattling when someone opened the window on the other side of the house, close to their side and yelled something about shutting up because she couldn’t sleep. Matt let out a heavy breath. That must’ve been Andrew’s little sister Anne. He had seen the pink haired girl many times but for the first time he wished she’d been closer so he could have thanked her personally. 

“Um, I guess I better leave you to your morning routines, then,” he rushed to say. His voice sounded a little too eager. 

“Oh no, you’re not bothering us at all but we must have you! You must be a busy man, taking care of the whole house by yourself.”

Andrew scoffed. Matt looked at him as he banged his window close and turned his back to it. He started to pull his hair up and tie it up to a small bun Matt had seen many teen guys do lately. It was fashionable or something, Matt wasn’t sure, but Andrew seemed to know that kind of stuff. He shook his head and looked back to the couple. He nodded to them and Mr. Hunter seemed just as relieved to get out of the window as Matt did. He seemed to glance at his wife with hope in his eyes.

In the end the whole scenario could’ve gone better considering he hadn’t expected the whole Hunter family waking up. That was a mistake on Matt’s part. But still… 

Matt took his phone out of his pocket and felt his lips curling up without him even trying. A horrified face of the dark haired guy looked right back at him and he knew all that trouble was worth it. He did a tiny skip as he went downstairs. Usually he never skipped but why the hell not for this once.

If Andrew got this kind of pleasure every time he fucked up with Matt’s head, he wasn’t even surprised the guy did it all the time. 

~

The counter attack came that evening as Matt took a shower. He hadn’t noticed anything out of usual as he washed himself – other than shampoo just might have felt a little different – but when he looked at the mirror he understood he’d been fooled once again. It was a little weird, though, that he wasn’t even angry when he saw an orange haired guy that had his face looking back from the mirror. 

He looked like a carrot thanks to that shit who’d apparently broke into his house god knows how and switched his usual shampoo into hair dye. Clever. Matt just hoped the colour’d wash off soon because he fucking hated orange. It was like that guy’d known which colour he hated the most.

When he went to work looking like an idiot Robert laughed his ass off with Jerry and Luke seemed indifferent. All the other heads turned to him only quickly so it wasn’t that big a deal. He had to explain himself, though, and that way his co-workers learned about his problems with his dear neighbour. 

Matt’s revenge was sweeter. He knew Andrew was the one to cut the grass every time in the Hunter household so thanks to all those evenings he’d sat on his car and thought about life, he’d seen when Andrew did his job. He was ready. He cut off all the flowers on the flowerbed, begging for forgiveness from nice Mrs. Hunter, and placed the shears close to Andrew. Then he watched through kitchen window as Mrs. Hunter connected the dots and started to blame her son for destroying her flowers. The glee Matt got out of it didn’t last long, though, as _dear Andy_ was easily able to talk himself out of the pinch. Because of course her little sweetheart couldn’t have done it. 

She didn’t seem to believe Andrew’s claims that it was Matt who did it either. 

Thank god that old lady liked him that much. 

That night Andrew hit back with blasting the music out of his stereos loud as fuck in the middle of the night so Matt couldn’t sleep. It seemed Mr. And Mrs. Hunter weren’t home because no complaints came from that side. Or maybe they were but simply let their spoiled son do whatever he wanted because it seemed he had some entrance exams coming up or something. 

Which meant Matt’d get rid of the little devil soon if he got in. 

Matt got some earplugs and let the other neighbours fill the complaint. This trick would backfire that jerk.

The next morning, feeling tired and shitty, Matt wasn’t feeling creative but he had to do something. Actually, being creative in that kind of shit wasn’t his style so he just lent some old and cliché trick that he’d learned in elementary school. Luckily he had a good memory sometimes. 

He’d found Andrew’s number through public search and made some prank calls. All day long. Couple of times the guy answered and Matt’d been quiet through the whole call but at the third call Andrew had gotten angry as hell and threatened him with the police if he ever called again and Matt had had problems with keeping his snarky comments back. 

He didn’t want to blow his cover. 

Then the guy stopped answering so he just left bunch of silent voice mails behind as well as text messages with dirty porn pictures he’d searched with google. Internet was such a blessing for a simple guy on a mission. Hopefully his mother’d find those pictures. Or his girlfriend if he even had one. The guy didn’t deserve any of her love, anyway. 

When The next day came Matt was already waiting for the counter attack because he knew Andrew Hunter wasn’t stupid. Evil, maybe, but not stupid. He’d have guessed who’d made all those calls from the unknown number. It’d become some kind of sick game already, that pranking. They took turns and tried to torments each other as much as possible and then watch the reaction while sitting back and drinking imaginary beer. 

It was getting a little tiring but that wasn’t what bothered Matt the most. He was bothered by the fact that his mood was actually getting low if he didn’t hear anything from Andrew Hunter the whole day. He was expecting and waiting for something. Any kind of sign or attack.

He was fucking enjoying that shit even though it was running him mad at the same time. 

Matt sighed while lying on his sofa, looking at the roof for the umpteenth time during the two years he’d lived in the house. Figures. Andrew Hunter was giving some kind distraction for him and got his thought out of all that Lydia bullshit. Was he really depending on some fucking sick game to get better? Was he really emotionally that messed up? He closed his eyes and sighed. It came out as a groan, though, and he decided it was better sleep the frustration off. It was still sunny outside but screw it. 

He felt tired. He felt tired every single day.

So why not forget everything and just fucking let go for a while. 

He let the steady buzzling of the radio lull him into a dreamless sleep. 

When he woke up he saw the room was dimmer than before, actually it was darker than he expected. How long had he slept? His eyes were blurry as he opened them slowly. Something was making the room dark. He opened his eyes more and blinked. A dark figure was next to his face, unmoving. 

Matt pushed himself up to his arm and felt his mouth fall open. 

He was staring straight into the dark blue eyes that were wide and surprised. He reflected the expression. 

Andrew Hunter only gulped audibly before he stood up in a flash and darted away. 

Matt watched him get out of the front door. 

He closed his mouth and only two thought got through his sleepy dizziness. 

First was the word “what”. 

And the second, “now’s a good time to kill him”.

And he was on his feet faster than a lightning bolt hit a high tree and ran after the asshole who’d _totally broken into his house the second fucking time_! 

He saw the retreating back by the fence, hopping over it clumsily and giving Matt time to catch up. His eyes locked to the dark grey shirt as he let his feet leap over the fence lighter than Andrew had let. He felt his blood pump inside his veins, felt adrenalin fill his head. He’d finally get that asshole! He caught him red handed doing whatever the fuck to him and his face. It wasn’t a nice surprise to wake up with some nasty face up to his. Fuck that!

Matt was getting closer, he was actually fucking faster than the guy six years younger than him. One more thing that made Andrew Hunter less good than Matt and he let that good feeling flow through his body. He reached his hand to grab the shirt and drag Andrew back to him so he could give him a good old right hook. 

Matt was so close, Andrew was right fucking there, his dark hair slipping out of the bun, when suddenly it was a freckled, panicking face that Matt saw in front of him. And then he saw nothing. He felt something cold slam against his face, get into his nose and mouth and he turned around. He breathed in air and coughed the water out of his throat. It burned. His hair was dripping wet and clothes stuck to his skin. 

Matt turned around, his hands shaking and teeth gritting against each other. And then he froze. The younger man stood before him, holding a garden hose, his blue eyes stuck on Matt’s face. Andrew’s expression was weird, Matt had never seen something like that before. The guy must’ve been plotting some shit… but wide, glinting eyes didn’t seem sly for once. He probably was going to ridicule Matt… but Andrew’s mouth was slack and open. 

It looked more like the confused face Matt had seen the guy do couple of times yet it still wasn’t that. 

Then Andrew motherfucking Hunter’s eyes lit up and a small snort came out. Then he laughed. He looked straight at Matt and laughed like he was having the best time of his life. The skin at the corners of his eyes wrinkled as his deep laughter carried through the streets and yards. He was trying to catch his breath and say something. 

Matt was at loss of what to do. 

He couldn’t stop staring. He hadn’t even known Andrew the fucker was able to laugh like a normal person – even if he was laughing at Matt. Andrew’s mouth curled up like anybody else’s did, his eyes started to water and his hair was imperfect mess. His tries to catch some breath were so normal, so humane that Matt knew he hadn’t dealt with a demon this whole time like he’d thought. 

It seemed like even his tormentor was just a human, after all. 

Not to mention even Andrew himself was starting to get his clothes wet with the hose but didn’t care because he was laughing so hard. 

“Y-Youh’resh… Oh fuck…” Andrew tried to make himself stop and heaved in a great amount of air. “Oh Jesus Christ!” 

Matt looked left and right. Some woman walked past them, looking at them weirdly. Her eyes stuck to Matt too and then left his face just as fast. “Err, what?”

Andrew shook his head and smiled. Fucking _smiled_ at Matt, brightly and looking like entirely other person. Matt thought about shading his eyes. He cleared his throat, feeling quite awkward with the new and unexpected situation. He was supposed to hit the guy, right? Or what was it again he was doing?

He let his eyes trail to the direction of Andrew’s hand which went into his pocket and came out with a smartphone a second later. He rose it up and the snap told he took a picture. 

“It’s a payback, bitch.” He smirked. Fucking. Mischievously.

Matt rubbed his eyes quickly. 

Andrew snorted. “Stop that, idiot. Look for yourself.”

When he shoved the phone up to Matt’s face, Matt hesitated for a second. He tried to see through Andrew’s act but got only rolling eyes and an impatient nod back. He didn’t trust this but…

His eyes landed on the picture and he looked fucking ridiculous. 

It seemed what Andrew had been doing to his face earlier was putting make-up on – quite heavy at that – and when Andrew had defended himself with the hose it’d gotten clear that the make-up wasn’t waterproof. 

Shortly said, Matt looked like a fucking clown with all the chemicals all around his face. And not to forget his fucking carrot head. Matt bit his lip but a snort escaped his mouth. He ducked his head down and hid his face into his hands. “Oh god.”

“You look ridiculous, dude,” Andrew said his voice full of amusement. Matt looked up and smiled. Andrew smiled back.

It was even more awkward than that one moment when Matt’d gotten caught jerking off at the school library. 

Matt wasn’t sure if it was his or Andrew’s smile that fell first. He crossed his hands against his chest and looked down to the black sneakers that had seen better days. 

“So uh, yeah…” He hummed a little but got no reply. Andrew was looking to the side, avoiding him just like Matt felt like avoiding it all. His mind couldn’t catch up with the events, not fully. He was still stuck at the part where he chased Andrew down to the Hunters’ backyard and then he stuck to the part where he heard the laughter. A normal, human laughter. 

Such a weird world, huh? He wasn’t that angry anymore, he didn’t feel humiliated, only awkward and his demonic neighbour wasn’t a demon after all. Who knew? 

Now he had to come up with a good way to get out of the situation. He hovered back and forth on his feet and coughed. “So, um, do you… do you wanna have some coffee… or… someth…”

Andrew’s head whipped back to him and he looked at him like an alien. Matt’s eyes widened and his mind finally caught up. It told him to stop right there and asked him what the fuck. He really wanted an answer to that. Something creeped up his stomach and made him realize what kind of grave he’d just dug himself. And no, it wasn’t a comfy grave with a soft coffin and marble walls but a goddamn burning fire bit. His mind had done some stupid trick to him because of tiredness and now he was going to pay. He tried to gather his thoughts and actually push the cold reality down to where it came from.

So he’d just made an invitation to the guy who’d tormented him for weeks and to whom he’d avenged with pleasure? Yeah, makes sense, Matthew. Because now that wouldn’t be awkward at all, right? Him, looking like a sadder version of Stephen King’s clown from It, sipping his coffee, and Andrew sitting opposite to him and trying to pick up the best option out of 235 ways to poison his drink without getting caught. Yep. Fucking hooray, Matthew. Fucking idiot. Now, safe the situation.

“Or I’ll just… uh… go back to sleep. Yeah…”

Bad safe. Andrew stared at him suspiciously, his eyes narrowed to slits. He was wrapping his arms around himself as he seemed to understand what the fuck it was he had done himself in front of Matt. That he’d laughed and looked something else but hostile. And then understood what Matt had done. Andrew was blushing badly, maybe from anger maybe from embarrassment, and he was also backing away slowly. 

His gaze hardened. It was probably for the best. Matt sighed and backed up too. What was he seriously trying to do there? Offer a peace pipe or something just as fucking stupid and useless? Andrew had shown him how much he detested him so there’s no way one simple laughter was enough to break that hatred. 

For a while Matt felt hollow. 

There was a ring as a bike rode up to them and stopped next to Andrew. The guy’d taken an indifferent face now as his sister looked back and forth between them. Her eyes seemed calculative and trying to figure out what she’d missed. Matt bet even the dogs of the whole damn suburb knew how stupid Matt was with social interaction. 

Anne’s face was the most priceless out of the three of them as she finally sensed the atmosphere. “Oookay, what’s going on between you two?” She scratched her pink hairline and then poked his brother. “Hey, talk!” 

“Shut up and get lost.” Such a typical sibling answer. Andrew looked up to her and made a fake-happy face. “Or better for you, I’m getting outta here! Have fun.”

He threw the hose to the ground and got Anne’s flower dress wet in the process. He pretended not to hear her mad scream. For a while they both stood there in a silence and watched him go. Back to square one, huh? Matt dragged his hand through his ugly ass hair. 

Anne’s green eyes flew to him. “Hey, tell me, what’s going on?” She got off her bike and walked closer to the man. Matt simply shook his head. Because what the fucking else could he do? He felt his mind reeling around possibilities without able to stop at one of them and think it through. He almost missed the way Anne looked around her, like she was trying to look sneaky.

“Actually, I watched you two for a while,” she said. Of course she did. She was a fucking Hunter and there was always something weird with their family. Matt lifted his brow and Anne held up her hands. “Hey, I didn’t mean to! Andy just had this weird expression around you! He always has the weirdest ones around you.”

He could agree with that.

“You know, sometimes he looks at you like you’re something disgusting. Oh, like slime!”

Nice. Thanks. 

“Then the second he’s watching you with that heated look like one would watch some good ol’ tentacle porn.”

Matt almost choked. “Tentacle porn?”

“Yeah! You know, the one with tentacles and cute anime girls… you don’t know, huh?”

Matt shook his head again. He looked behind to find an escape route. Anne’s eyes shone weirdly and looked way too ready show him in practice what tentacle porn was. 

“Uh, yeah, so, porn. What else?”

Anne hummed and messed with her bright ponytail. “Well, just now, he smiled at you. That was the first time right?” She looked up at him and smirked. It looked way too similar with her big brother’s. “Though, you look pretty funny. What happened to you?”

“Your brother.”

“Ooh, right. So that’s what he’s into nowadays.”

Matt didn’t listen. He hadn’t known Anne Hunter that well before and now hoped he hadn’t gotten to know her even this much. It was okay that she stayed as his sworn enemy’s younger sibling. 

“Anyhow.” She smiled up to him, looking sneaky. She leaned in closer to Matt’s ear and whispered, “I think he has a crush on you.”

Matt felt shivers go up his neck. They weren’t good shivers. She giggled a lot like her mother and then winked. “Well, who knows what the truth is anyway. But please, try to make less noise, okay. It’s getting annoying to listen to you two scream at each other.” 

Matt wished he hadn’t stayed there with the 17 years old Anne because now his mind wasn’t only confused. 

Anne had freaked the shit out of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to finish this chapter before the weekend. I won’t have my computer with me so it means no writing too ;w; Thank you everyone for your support! You guys inspire me so much~


	5. Witness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m super sorry it took forever! But I guess it’s pretty hard to make any time to write when your schedule’s full of studying, studying, studying… Let’s hope the next one won’t take as long. Thank you everyone for showing your support! You’ve made me really happy and I’m actually crying so ;___; Take responsibility, dammit!

_”She’s not giving in. She wants the whole custody of her and cut you off of their life for good.”_

The voice on the phone was calm, almost monotone. She didn’t give out her personal feelings in any way. 

Matt licked his dry lips. 

_“She has a heavy argument. And a witness.”_

“Witness? For what reason? Who?” He leaned against the rough tile wall and tried to look for the never darkening sky from the sea of high-rise buildings. Everything was grey. 

_"I can't tell, Mr. McFall. But are you sure you don’t know yourself,”_ her voice wasn’t even regretful. It was like his fucking lawyer wasn’t even running his business. Like she was already siding with the opposing party of the case. Hinting that Matt knew damn well why Lydia was cutting him off of Sam’s life. Like he’d done something really bad. For a while he had a serious, fleeting thought of hanging up. He kept his fingers at pay with a new cigarette. 

“I don’t.” He could feel the doubt over the line. 

_“Then we’ve better come up with the best way to prove your reliability and that her accusations are not valid.”_

“So this is going to the court?”

_“Yes.”_

Figures. Heavy silence filled the warm evening air. “And the charge?”

No answer.

“Don’t I have the right to know?”

 _“Yes. Have you ever acted in a menacing way towards your wife or child?”_

Matt almost choked to the smoke. He inhaled some fresh air in and listened to the beating of his heart that beat in the same rhythm of the bass-filled music of various clubs and bars. “What?” he croaked. 

_“Have you ever been—“_

“Yeah! Yeah. I heard the first time. It’s just…” He dragged the rough palm of his hand through his face. It was cold even though it was warm outside. “No. Of course I’ve never wanted any harm to my family.” The words he’d just heard played over and over again inside his head and after every time he was more confused. He had never wanted to harm his loved. Never. So why was Lydia saying things like that… and to have a witness. Someone to testify Matt’s guiltiness. 

It was a lie. A fucking outright lie! 

He hoped it was a lie. 

Matt wasn’t a bad person. 

Maybe stupid, indifferent and… not there when she needed help but never violent. 

A burning sting on his hand brought him back to the reality. With a hiss he brushed the fallen ash down to the ground, checked the angry red dot on his hand where the ash had landed from the cigarette thanks to his daydreaming and finally understood his lawyer was calling out for him over the phone. 

“S-Sorry, what was it?”

_“Mr. McFall. I hope you take this issue seriously because it is the mother we’re talking about here. Mothers always have an advantage when it comes to the children, I hope you understand that. And especially now that she claims to be the victim of your erratic behaviour and has someone to back her up… well, we’ll have quite a lot of work to do before the D-day.”_

She was talking too much. His brain started to hurt so he closed his eyes. “Yeah, I know. Just… err, when was the trial again?”

_“The last Friday of the month.”_

Which meant three weeks. Grey eyes closed. Suddenly even standing felt hard. The whole fucking reality felt too heavy to even think. Matt swallowed the lump that made it impossible to answer anything positive. 

“I understand.”

_“I’ll contact you soon.”_

“Yeah, bye.”

Connection fell silent. Matt let his hand fall down as he listened the thumping. It was so irregular that for a while he thought he was having a heart attack but then there was a loud bang and he remembered where he was. He was just outside the pub where he’d been having a nice evening with his best friend and father while watching some football. He’d felt good. Pretty normal, actually. It’d been months since he’d just sat there at his usual spot watching sports in a companionable silence. He’d felt okay because he’d been able to take his mind off of the whole fucking shit that was going on with his ex and daughter. He’d freaking laughed just a few days ago because of how ridiculous he’d looked due to his asshole of a neighbour’s tricks. He touched his hair in passing. It was still orange, wasn’t it? He wasn’t quite sure if he’d actually done anything to it. 

What the hell was he even doing? Feeling sorry for himself, thinking stupid horse shit like his hair and having doubts on his own actions. The hell? He had to get his act together, he was an adult man. He was an _adult man_. And he wanted to see his… yeah. He ignored the pain inside and hastily opened the door that lead back to the dim pub with a big screen and cheering people. Someone’d made a goal, Matt had no idea who. He kept his eyes strained on the seat that Robert was keeping for him and sat back down. He kind of guessed he was watched but he didn’t give an answer to unvoiced questions. 

He wanted those himself and pouring down the beer was the first step to it. 

He ignored the nagging, reproachful words that sounded oddly like something Andrew Hunter’d say. Fuck if he started to listen to that guy all of sudden. 

Just thinking about what kind of disgusted face – since Andrew seemed to have multiple of those – he’d make if he saw the speed the drink was going down. He definitely wouldn’t laugh or even give him any words a normal human being would say. With the Hunter jerk it wasn’t “Don’t drink so much, I’m worried about your health” but “Dude, get out of my face. I don’t wanna see some old drunk the first thing I step outside the house.” 

A soft huff escaped his lips. 

A heavy hand clapped his shoulder and Matt looked up, completely forgetting he was in the middle of people. He saw eyes with crow feet around them look at him with worry. He clapped his father’s shoulder back and nodded. 

“You okay there, man?” Robert asked from the other side. The normal answer would be yes but Matt guessed he wasn’t okay enough to even try to pronounce it. He glued his eyes to the big screen, not wanting to see any familiar faces. 

“It was my lawyer. Lydia’s pressing charges on me.”

“What?”

“She wants me out of Sam’s life.”

“Wait, wait! What the hell, man?”

Matt felt the old but strong hand grip his shoulder harder. It took him two seconds longer to figure out how to even form a coherent sentence. “Well, ya know, she says I’ve been… hurting them or something…”

His dad’s grunt didn’t even get finished when Matt continued, “But I swear I have no idea what she’s talking about!” He felt the stares on him again and he tore his eyes off the game he wasn’t seeing. He met his father’s eyes again. “I swear.” 

When there was no accusation, no doubt in the other grey eyes, Matt felt the shivering stop. He hadn’t even noticed he was shivering. Hell, he hadn’t noticed he’d just wanted to see someone think at least something good about him. For the past months he’d been feeling like he was the worst guy on Earth. Because of Andrew, because of Lydia, because he knew he was messing up his own life and he felt guilty as hell for not being there for Sam when she was still so small. So when there was no hesitation in his father’s eyes, for a while he felt like he was just a little kid again. 

He didn’t want to deal with anything but unfortunately even he knew it was impossible to escape forever. He could run but he could not get away. 

Another hand landed on his back with heavy and brotherly patting. “Hey, Matty, we believe you, okay. Don’t even think otherwise. Got it?” Robert’s smile was in place again. The world felt like it was at least a little bit normal again. The world around them went on without waiting, normally. It was a calming thought. 

“And we’ll come to the trial to defend you, alright.” 

“You will?”

“Yeah, man! We’ll show that bitch who she’s messing with.” 

Matt didn’t say a word. He nodded. He felt better and he was thankful but it was hard to say. It wasn’t arrogance, it wasn’t as if he didn’t want to. He simply couldn’t. He didn’t even dare to look either of them in the eye. 

Someone made a goal. The whole pub stood up to cheer and the game was over. 

“Well, it’s late already,” His father, Gary, spoke up for the first time. He looked at his shabby wrist watch. “If I go to home now your mom’s gonna just kick me outta the house. Mind if I stay on your couch or something?” 

Matt knew his dad was just making an excuse to stay with Matt a little longer. He knew he was worried but neither of them said a thing as they walked towards the little suburb that felt less and less inviting every day. 

The night was calm. Only couple of drunkards tried to stop them to ask for light and pick a fight but otherwise it was calming. Matt tried to shut his mind off of useless stuff but when he saw the front yard of his house he almost fell over. A fog filled his head. He thought he saw a small figure sitting on the lawn and playing with a huge teddy bear that almost fell over her. He quickly rummaged through the pockets and slammed the keys in. Only the ticking welcomed him home as he flicked the lights on. He threw the cap to the rag and dragged his feet inside.

“You want ‘nother beer?” 

He was almost at the refrigerator when he noticed no one was following him. Frowning, Matt peeked back to the entrance and saw his father looking around the house silently. His eyes fell on something in the living room. 

“Son.”

Matt raised his brow in question. The look in the older eyes made him want to turn his head away in shame. He had no idea why but suddenly he felt exposed like some dark secret was finally out and his father didn’t know what to do with it. 

“When was the last time you cleaned up in here?”

“Uhm.” Matt blinked and looked around the place he still dutifully called home. He noticed the pile of smelling laundry at the bottom of the stairs, half empty pizza boxes on every single surface there was, soda cans here and there crumbled and spilled over, some baby toys pushed to the dusty corners of the kitchen. Now that his dad pointed it out it was quite messy. It was like someone had bombed his house and he hadn’t even noticed it until now. 

He tried to recall when he’d put the laundry to the laundry machine. Or when he’d dusted off any other room than Sam’s. 

Had he even changed his bed sheets since spring? Even once? 

Maybe it wasn’t a bomb that had exploded inside the house but his entire life. 

He stood there in front of the sad eyes and didn’t know what to do, where to move or even what kind of excuse to make. Was there any, really? He hadn’t even noticed until now and it made him feel useless. 

Disgusting. No wonder no one wanted to give him a baby when he couldn’t even take care of himself.

It wasn’t until someone ringed the doorbell that the father and son moved. He didn’t show the relief that went through his body as he passed the older man and opened the door to another. Not older but maybe to the man of his age. His blond hair was pushed back and he was wearing a long fur coat. Matt didn’t budge. 

“Yes?”

“Did someone call a stripper?”

Matt froze. He heard his father cough. The stranger smiled brightly and confidently. A-A stripper? 

“S-Sorry… come again?” 

“Sorry, love, I can’t come but maybe I can make you come with my hot lap dance.” He opened his coat and flashed a toned body to the two men inside. Matt’s brain stopped right there and nothing was able to make it work normally ever again. Hadn’t he just been there, standing in shame because of the state of his own house? Hadn’t he been feeling sorry for himself? And now he was talking to, what, a stripper? What was life?

“Huh?” 

The smile of the guy who was showing his bare chest fell a little. He looked at Matt and then behind him, probably to Matt’s father. “You… didn’t call a stripper?” 

Matt’s mouth hang open. 

The gaze fell once again to the oldest man inside. “Did _you_ call me or what?”

There was an embarrassed croak and a rushed no. A silently whispered question reached Matt’s ears, “Son, are you _gay_?” 

Matt shook his head. He was starting to get an idea what was going on. Or rather, who was doing whatever the fuck he wanted again. “No. I mean, no, I’m not gay and no, I didn’t call you.”

“But I was definitely told to come to this address.” He showed Matt a piece of paper. “Isn’t this your address?”

“Yes.” Matt closed his eyes and wanted to sleep. “But you can find the one who called you from there.” 

The stripper man followed his pointed finger to the house next door. He didn’t move, though. “Hey, I want my payment, okay. So that guy over there better pay me. I don’t do this for fun, you see.”

“Yeah.” Matt turned back to his father whose cheeks were red. Matt blinked but decided not to say a thing. He felt like escaping the piercing eyes of his father. Was he really thinking it was Matt who’d called for a stripper? Did he… Matt pushed his hands to the pockets of the jeans and cleared his throat. He pointed somewhere behind him and let the same hand fall to the back of his neck. 

“I’m gonna, you know, show him the right place.”

“Alright…”

“And, I mean, I _didn’t_ call him, okay?” 

His father kept a long pause. “Alright.”

“And… about the house, I… I…”

“Alright.”

Matt exhaled. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

Not wanting to see that expression any longer he followed after the guy who’d thank god covered himself again and made his way to the next door. The path was already so familiar it was depressing. To think how many time’s he’d been on the front yard and not only for a nice and friendly visit. This wasn’t going to be nice either. It was Andrew’s luck though that Matt wasn’t feeling up to a fight. He just wanted to sleep, sleep and sleep. 

He rang the bell feeling the guy hanging just behind his back. He definitely wasn’t going to leave before getting his money. It felt like eternity until someone came to the door.

And it was the demon himself. If Matt could read the guy at all, he was obviously expecting them to appear on his door step. His smile was sweet, nothing like the real smile Matt had been able to witness once, and the words he next pronounced were covered in venom. 

“How can I help you?”

Matt didn’t want to deal with it. 

“Your stripper came to my door.”

“Stripper?” Blue eyes scanned the muscular guy next to Matt with faked curiosity. He crossed his hands over the t-shirt that said Nirvana. “Well, well, Matty. Didn’t know you were into that kind of stuff.”

Matt rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Stop lying. I know it was you. It’s no use.”

The smile fell off. “And what of it.”

“So you admit. Great! For once. Now do something—“

“Oh no, I’m not doing anything because it’s your stripper, not mine.” Andrew took a step closer and was face to face with Matt. Matt almost took a step back. Their faces were closer than he thought, to think that they were almost same height when their builds were definitely different. 

“Listen, Hunter. I—“

“Guys, _guys!_ ” Matt couldn’t finish his sentence. Hunter’s eyes snapped to the third guy like he was in the way. So stupid. He’d been the one to even drag him into their mess. It was a surprise the asshole was listening, though.

“I don’t really understand why you’re fighting over me!” Matt didn’t see it necessary to tell him there was much more to it than the existence of the male stripper. “You’re like cats and dogs, geez.” 

“Don’t wanna listen to us, go home then.” Andrew had no sympathy for the guy he’d himself called there. But it was a little surprising he was showing that side of him to someone else than Matt. 

“Hey, be nice.” 

The flashing blue turned back to Matt. “Oh what the fuck. Don’t you start to talk to me like you’re my—“ 

“Hey, hey, _hey!_ ” The stripper put his hand on both of the guys’ shoulders. Andrew shrugged the hand away and Matt rolled his eyes. What a child. And that guy was seriously almost twenty? 

“You know, honey, that I’m not going anywhere before I get my money.” Matt kept his eyes on the younger man. The blue didn’t leave him either. Matt crossed his hands, trying to find something to keep himself rooted. 

“I’m not paying for this.” Andrew scoffed at Matt’s words. “Seriously, I wasn’t involved in this at all.”

“Well, boohoo then, because I’m not paying either.” 

“Jesus, take responsibility, okay? You were the one who—“

“Well, maybe, but he was going to dance for _you!_ ” 

“You got to be kidding me…”

“Boys, how about you both pay for me?” The blond man smiled and winked at Matt. “Since you got my special attention and this other tiger here called me just for you. I can even give you the service you’re about to pay, how about that?”

“Uhm, no… thanks…” Matt couldn’t look at the brightly smiling face so he turned to look at his sneakers. They looked worse than before. Andrew scoffed again. 

“But isn’t my suggestion the best?”

Matt almost could hear how Andrew was thinking whether or not it was counted as losing. The older man didn’t care though. He was ready to make a compromise. If the Hunter shit wasn’t it was his problem. He was only going to pay half. 

When he started to search for his wallet and got the price from the stripper he heard another defeated sigh and the third man got his entire tax. “I knew you guys were cool.” And he left with the money and his good mood but left the charged air and hostile thoughts to the neighbours. 

Matt stared at the blue eyes for a while without being able to see anything but remorse in them. He was starting to see why, though. Especially when Andrew turned around and just before he banged the door close he said, “See you in court”. 

Matt started to make his way back to the house, slowly. _See you in court._

Now he knew who Lydia’s witness was. 

He almost gave up and crumbled to the floor. Was it too much to hope his cell mate was going to be just some small pickpocketing thief?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just noticed that there are some embarrassing typos in the previous chapters. I don’t have time to fix them but wanted tell you I know about them and will do something about it in the future. Sorry about that~


End file.
